Violet to Blue
by kola shadowfire
Summary: first time ever!
1. Chapter 1

****

Chapter One

Duo Maxwell stood, leaning on the wall next to the fax machine. He tapped his foot impatiently. He had been sent to this little fishing village to meet the next Gundam pilot, and he was waiting for the meeting place and how he was going to recognise him. 

"Finally." He said to himself as the machine started to whirr and a piece of paper came out. Duo frowned in curiosity as a blurry black and white picture came out with the writing. He picked it up and looked at the boy. He was fifteen, the same as the rest of them, trained in a very strict training facility and was described as the perfect soldier. His name, as far as he or any other knew, was Heero Yuy. Duo's brow uncrossed as he looked at the fuzzy picture of him. He was darkly and mysteriously handsome. He had messy dark hair, that, according to the description, was very dark brown. He was apparently tanned and quite tall. His large eyes were dark, very dark blue according to the words, and, even in the bad photo, Duo found himself almost unable to look away from him. They were meeting down at the harbour in…five minutes. Duo swore, folded up the piece of paper, shoved it in his pocket, grabbed his jacket and left the apartment hurriedly, shoving the key in his jacket. They always did this. He swore that it was the only way Treize ever had any fun, knowing he was rushing everybody.

**************

It was eleven at night, and the brightly coloured lights around it lighted the harbour. There were still quite a few people around; midnight fisherman, lovers being generally restless, and nerds unable to sleep. Duo was nearly invisible. His black leather pants clung to his thighs and hung heavily over his black heavy boots. He wore a deep red top with a low, round top and a black leather jacket over that. His chestnut hair was in a thick braid that reached the back of his knees, and the different colours highlighted different parts of it, the moonlight picking up the tints of gold in it. It was beautiful, he prided it. His creamy, pale-ish skin was strangely elegant and, in the moonlight, gave him a slightly unearthly look. His violet eyes passed over the various couples, resting on the single men walking past, but none of them were young enough, or, they just weren't him.

He walked along slowly, looking at everyone passing him. He was ten minutes late. Finally, his eyes rested on a figure leaning on the railing of the harbour. He could see a messy shock of dark hair on the top of the guy's head before the thick collar of the three-quarter-length trench coat, which was blacker than the night. Under that he could see very light blue jeans and dark, strangely elegant boots underneath. Here was a suspect. Duo meandered his way over to the railing next to him and leant on it, looking out at the dark sea. He flipped his violet eyes over to the guy standing next to him, and bit his lip to stop himself gasping. He was even more handsome in real life, and it was definitely him. His hair fell thickly over his tanned forehead, his straight nose leading down to his thin yet strong lips and jaw. His eyes, Duo had been prepared for dark blue, but these were the colour of the sea at its greatest depth, and yet were deeper than that. Duo felt like he was falling into them, and he had only looked into them for a millisecond. He was wearing a white top like Duo's under his trench coat. His hands were deep in his pockets, and Duo looked out to the sea whilst he controlled himself.

"Heero Yuy?" he asked, in an undertone. The boy simply nodded. Duo turned, and offered his hand.

"Duo Maxwell, I've come to collect you, as it were." He said, cheerfully. The boy turned his head and looked sternly into Duo's eyes before looking at his hand and back up again. Duo raised his eyebrows and sighed, lowering his hand. "Do you talk?" he asked, a slight grin on his face.

"Only when told to." Heero replied, and his voice was as deep as his eyes, and slightly husky, like he wasn't used to using it. Duo smiled in slight disbelief.

"Oh, yea. Perfect soldier, right?" he asked, looking past him. His eyes widened and he felt the boy frown at him as he grabbed his arm tightly. "Time to put you to the test, Yuy." He whispered, and Heero turned to where Duo was looking. Five men were coming towards them, scaring people off and staring at them, menacingly. "Got a weapon?" Duo asked.

"Always." Came the reply, and a hand came out of the pocket, holding a black handgun. 

"Nice." Duo said, and took a gun out of his own inner pocket. His gun was silver, sleeker and a little longer than Heero's. He grinned a little as the other boy's eyes looked approvingly at it. He was proud of that, too. Slowly, they turned to the men approaching them. Duo scanned them. Now that people had gone, five handguns had come out. Duo let out a breath, cricking his neck.

"Looks like the new boy's fired before he's even begun." The leader growled, and, quick as lightning, raised his hand and fired at Heero. Well, would have done, if Heero hadn't been twice as fast, making Duo jump as the man was knocked backwards, a bullet wound directly in the middle of his forehead. Duo looked at him, disbelief on his face.

"You're good!" he exclaimed. Heero shrugged, and Duo grinned. For some reason, he liked this stoic, silent boy, he didn't know why. He turned back, laughing at the astonished faces on the remaining four men's faces. "Looks like the new guy's a little better than you thought, guys." He shouted. They looked up at him, and raised their guns. This time, Duo shot, a clean shot that threw a man backward off the harbour with a yell. Then, the remaining three and the two boys split. Duo ducked and dived, all guns forgotten for a minute, physical fighting preferred. Unfortunately for the men, he was the best fighter out of the five Gundam pilots, except for maybe Wufei, but that was arguable. One man fell to the floor, his neck broken, before another was battled to ground. Duo's shoulders prickled as he heard a yell, too young for a man. He crashed his knee into the man's windpipe, crushing it, leaving him to die with a sickening gurgle. He spun round, gun ready. Heero and the man were in a battle of strength. Duo swore; he couldn't get a straight shot, but the man was winning. If he didn't do something, Heero would be gone. So he shot. 

There was a yell…from Heero.

"No!" Duo yelled, and sprang forward. The man was dead before he hit the floor, and Duo himself landed beside Heero. "Oh God! I…I had to do something…I…"

"Shut up." Heero said, firmly. His face was twisted in pain, and his hand was red with blood, rested on his side. He put a hand on Duo's shoulder. "Go, now. Look." He said, and Duo followed his gaze. A whole load of other men was heading for them. He turned back to Heero.

"I'm not leaving you!" he yelled. Heero glared at him, and pushed him away with amazing strength.

"Go!" he cried, louder now. "I'll be fine. Just get out, and find another pilot. My life's not worth yours, you're already a pilot, I'm not, I'm just another soldier. Now go!" he yelled, pushing Duo away again. Duo shook his head, but his stomach flipped when Heero pointed his handgun at him. "Go." He hissed, his deep blue eyes blazing. Duo sighed.

"You're not getting out of this that easily." He said as he got up. "You ain't dead yet, man." 

Then he ran, hating himself. He ducked into an alley and clambered up a drainpipe onto the sloping roof as two men came flying after him and under him. He heard gun shots and yells from the harbour, and crept back, peeping over the edge. Heero was grimacing with pain and anger, shooting every man within feet. Despite himself, Duo grinned. This boy kicked ass! 

Finally, Heero's gun ran out, and the men grabbed him. He yelled with pain as they hauled him up, and Duo gritted his teeth against the urge to go down there again, but he knew he was out numbered.

"Take him to the hospital." A gruff voice said. "He could be useful."

"Which one, boss?"

"White Star, it's the one with the most friends." The voice said, again, and Duo grinned as they carried the limp boy away. Minions, he said to himself, they were always too cocky.

**************

"Don't do it, Maxwell." Came the commanding voice of Treize down the phone.

"But boss, we need him!" Duo pleaded.

"No!" Treize ordered. Duo rolled his eyes and feigned a resigned sigh.

"Alright, sir. Can you put Trowa on, please?" he asked, and heard Treize call the Heavyarms pilot.

"Duo?" cam the musical, slightly Latin voice of Trowa.

"Is Treize gone?" Duo whispered.

"Yes." Came the reply.

"Fine. When's the earliest you can be ready for a beaten dude and me at the rooms?"

"Duo, it's directly against orders, you'll get thrown out!"

"I'm worth too much for him to chuck me, and you haven't seen this guy, Trowa. He's amazing! Anyway, I can't just leave him. Please? For me?"

There was a sigh the other end.

"Fine. Quatre, Wufei and I will be waiting at the back, you know the way. Keep it down, Treize should be away, but you know how reliable he is."

"You are brilliant, Trowa. I owe you one." Duo said.

"You owe me much more than that." Trowa said, but Duo could tell he was smiling.

"And I will pay you back, I promise." He said.

"Whatever. Good luck. Don't get killed. That Yuy guy was right, his life isn't worth yours, Duo."

"I'm not too sure about that, Trowa, in all senses of the word, but thanks. Over and out." Duo said, and put the phone down. He stopped for a moment. He wasn't quite sure why he wanted this guy to be all right so much, but he did. There was something about him. He wasn't the kind of guy to trust within seconds, and he certainly didn't trust Heero, but there was something about the stoic young man that appealed to him. He shook his head, replaced his now fully loaded gun and left the flat.

**************

Heero woke to find himself in a hospital room; it could only be that. He saw the machines and he felt the hardness of the bed. His head hurt, and he remembered the beating. His whole body ached, and he felt numerous bandages all over his body. His side burnt, and he remembered the shot, he remembered Duo. He shook his head. Even though he hardly knew him, he had a sneaking suspicion that that was typical of him. He was ok, serious, very good at what he did, but so light hearted it was almost hard to believe. There was something more, though. Behind those beautiful violet eyes was a hurt that no one had been able to mend. Oh well, his problem, Heero thought, but unsure. 

He looked over, and saw the men congregated outside. There was no way he was getting out. He sat up, leaning over painfully to pull the blinds down. The window had bars and he couldn't get out, but he could look around. He was still wearing his denim pants that hugged his upper legs, but his shirt had been removed due to the numerous wounds inflicted. He pulled the bandages off all his wounds gently, so they didn't start bleeding again, only keeping the one around his side on, a little worried that it could be holding him in right now. He hated bandages, he'd had too many on him to make up for the rest of his life.

He fell back on the bed, his arms out as he tried to work out what to do. He heard, or felt, the buzz of the speaker in one corner come on, and heard a tentative cough that sounded slightly familiar.

"Heero?" it said, in Duo's voice. Heero frowned. What? "Hey man, wave at the camera if you're alive."

Heero sat up, frowning. What the hell was he doing? "Hey man." The speaker went on, "What's with the suicidal bullshit, huh? And what's with the "I'm just another soldier" shit? I said you weren't dead yet, and I meant it."

"You shouldn't have come here." Heero said, quietly, slightly disgusted at how glad he was Duo was here.

"Well, I did. Now, in roughly…thirty seconds after I've finished talking you will here an alarm bell. The men will be forced to leave, unless they want to be found out by people who aren't their friends. Then, approximately three minutes after that I will come into your room where you will be ready and help you out of here. No arguing, no refusing to come. Remember that I'm the one with the gun now. Got that?"

Heero nodded, suppressing his slight inner smile at the boy's tone. There it was again. There was something about this Duo that he liked, he didn't know what. Sure enough, thirty seconds after silence had come over him, an alarm went off, and he heard the protests of the men, but they were won over. He counted three minutes and Duo hadn't come. After another minute, though, he burst in.

"You're late." Heero said. Duo looked a little taken aback at first, and then saw the slightly amused glint in Heero's eyes.

"Bastard." He said grinning, and came over. Within seconds, it seemed, Heero found himself carried out of the back, put into a very sleek sports car and driven off.

He allowed himself to take the other youth in. His long thick hair streamed out in the wind, as the car had no roof, glints of gold in its chestnut brown. His large violet eyes were on the road and he was biting his full lips a little, concentrating on the little roads. He was strangely beautiful, but Heero couldn't put his finger on what it was that made him so. Finally, Duo looked over at him and grinned.

"Gotcha there, huh? There was no way I was gonna let you go after saying that." He said. "No more suicide attempts, you hear?"

Heero shrugged.

"Depends if it's required." He said, looking to the front again.

"So you'd just throw your life away?" Duo asked, his eyes wide. Heero nodded. "What about family, friends, people who care about you? What are they supposed to do?"

"I've never had a family, I don't want any friends and nobody gives a damn where I came from." Heero replied. Duo frowned, a tiny stab of annoyance growing in his stomach.

"Well, you're gonna have to learn, man. Where I come from, we look after each other; we care about each other. There's five of us now, five pilots, and we look out for all the rest…"

"I never said I wouldn't do that."

"No, you just said you'd throw your life away whatever, right?" Duo asked, coldly. "Well, like it or not, if you start working for us, we're gonna end up caring. But if you value your life that low, then next time I won't bother saving your ass, I'll just let you throw it away, even if I do care."

Heero found himself tightening as Duo's voice went icy, and looked over. The usually generous violet eyes were tight and cold and he was gripping the steering wheel. For the first time since he could remember, he felt like he wanted to say something, but didn't know what.

"I…I just want to get the job done." He managed after a while, "Where I come from, we learn that the mission must be accomplished whatever the price and the others just have to deal…"

"Where I came from, we were taught that killing and maiming for release was alright so long as the cause was holy, people give you bullshit you just have to learn what's right and wrong for yourself." Duo snapped, and there was an awkward silence. "Oh, shit, I didn't mean for that to come out." He said, grimacing, and sighed. "I'm sorry, I just…I'm a little…"

"Don't worry." Heero interrupted. "All this is new to me."

Duo looked at him. 

"You'll get what I mean after a while. I can look out for you if you like for a bit. Treize can be a bullshit as well." He offered, casually.

"I'll be ok." Heero replied both knowing Duo would do it anyway. There was a small silence, but not awkward this time.

"The HQ is deep in the country. Nice place, just about twenty minutes away now." Duo said after a while. "I'll show you your rooms, your stuff should be there already. They're pretty good rooms, and all the pilots are on the same floor. It may take some time to get to know your way round, I still get lost, but you know…"

Duo carried on cheerfully telling Heero about the HQ. Heero only half listened, but the boy's light heart was contagious and he felt relaxed, or would have done, if he wasn't shaking.

"Heero?" he heard Duo ask, and looked over at him. "You cold?" Heero shrugged. Duo sighed and rolled his eyes at him. "Take the wheel a minute." He said. Heero frowned, but leant over his lap and took the wheel. Duo smelt of leather and there was a sweet smell that was all his. Heero was dimly aware of what the American boy was doing, and then he felt a leather jacket being thrown over his bare shoulders and Duo pushing him back to the passenger seat.

"You don't have to…"

"Shut up." Duo said firmly, smiling at him. Heero said nothing, but Duo noticed his eyes softening a tiny bit, and smiled inwardly. His red tank top was quite loose and it was a little chilly, but he didn't care. They drove on in silence, comfortably into the night; both lost in their own thoughts.


	2. Chapter 2

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Chapter Two

Duo pushed down the shiver. Heero needed the jacket more than he did. He stole a quick look at the youth beside him. He was staring out of the side of the car distantly, Duo's jacket wrapped tightly around him. Duo smiled a little, and then tuned a corner. He watched as Heero's eyes widened a bit as they entered the valley, and looked at it himself. It was very impressive. An almost perfect circle surrounded by mountains. There a few wooden roofs hidden in the pine forests that scaled the small mountains and the valley floor itself was half grass and half deep lake, smooth, the moonlight perfectly reflected in it. The house was massive, four visible floors and nearly as wide as the valley itself.

"Oz HQ" Duo stated, proudly.

"How do they not suspect anything?" Heero asked.

"Oh, there are loads of places like this that teach people how to do all of the random sports. Which is cool, 'cause we get to do them all for cover. Anyway, the real thing is underground and stretches for miles before the Gundams come out so nobody suspects anything. But, if you think that's great…" Duo pressed a green button on the dashboard. The roof came up. "Now, open the window and stick your head out." He said. Heero raised his eyebrows but Duo just grinned. Heero did as he asked, but didn't see anything wrong. "Now look at the car." Duo told him, and laughed out loud at Heero's surprised expression. 

"How…"

"Some crap with mirrors, I'm not quite sure." Duo said, "But it's damn useful. Do the window up though, it doesn't work when it's open."

Heero did up the window.

"So, no one can see us?"

"Unless they look at the grass moving." Duo said, and Heero now understood why they were going on the grass, not the gravel. "Whose guarding the house, by the way, I'm concentrating on the road, or the grass."

"Um…mask, long blonde hair…"

"Oh Trowa, you always have to do the job properly, what would I do without you?" Duo crooned to himself.

"What?"

"That's Zechs. He'll be part of it."

"Part of what?"

Duo faltered. Heero didn't sound like the kind of person who thought Duo's forbidden action heroic.

"Oh, nothing. It doesn't matter." Duo said, ignoring Heero's piercing gaze with great difficulty. They came up right up to Zechs, who pretended he didn't see them and stopped. Duo leaned over Heero and wound down the window. "Thanks, Zechs, man. You're the best."

"I know." Zechs replied, in a silvery, amused voice. Heero frowned as his silver masked top half of his face looked down on him, two ice blue eyes looking out of the slits. "Welcome to Oz." He said, and his thin lips turned up in a smile. Heero nodded at him. "Go on, get going. The others are waiting for you. Go to mine, I'll be there. He looks like he needs medical aid."

"Right on!" Duo cried and leant back, leaving Heero to do the window back up as they drove softly over the grass, invisible. They drove all the way to the back, where Heero saw a small jetty and a water garage where he guessed the boats were. Duo drew in quickly onto the gravelled car park, and stopped the car. "You're here." He said, grinning at Heero.

"Who are they?" Heero asked. Duo looked over at the three boys approaching.

"Well that is Chang Wufei." He said, pointing to the middle of the boys. He had jet-black hair that was tight against his skull and in a small ponytail at the back of his head. He was in loose white trousers and flat shoes. His white tank top was loose and tucked in and he had very dark eyes with delicate features. "That is Trowa Barton." He motioned to the tallest of the three, with brown hair that stuck out in a large quif to one side. He was in navy folded trousers and black, elegant shoes. His shirt was long sleeved and mid-green, the top button undone. His eyes were bright green. "And that, is Quatre Winner." Lastly, the shortest boy had a crop of white blonde hair and an innocent face with baby blue, big eyes. He wore cream folding trousers and brown smart shoes, his top a black T-shirt that was tucked in. Heero couldn't make the details out that well, but well enough. "Together, we make the Gundam pilots. The group you have just joined." Duo said, grinning even more at him. The tall boy came around the car and opened Heero's door, Duo having made the car visible again. He bent down.

"Trowa Barton." He said, and held out his hand. Heero wriggled his out of Duo's jacket and grasped the other boy's, feeling his delicate, long but strong fingers grasp his own hand.

"Heero Yuy." He said.

"Hey! I didn't get a handshake! What's so special about Trowa?!" he heard Duo cry, and Trowa smiled, Heero's eyes softening a little in amusement. Trowa pulled his hand and helped him out of the car. He un wrapped his arms and let the jacket hang, his lean, muscular chest open to all, making Duo shiver a little.

"Chang Wufei." The Chinese boy said, bowing. Heero bowed his head a little.

"Quatre Winner." The small boy said, taking Heero's hand and pumping it up and down enthusiastically. Heero hadn't the heart to pull away. He bowed his head a little. He looked over to see Duo pouting, his arms crossed. He raised his eyebrows. There was a musical laugh from Trowa.

"Just because you don't get a handshake, Maxwell." He said. 

"Ha! I know him so well I get hugs." Duo boasted, but at Heero's look quickly changed the subject with a grin. "Let's go." He said, and put his hand on Heero's shoulder, leading him towards the house. Heero looked around as they trudged over the gravel and in through a little door. It was an ordinary, small corridor with white walls, ceiling and floor.

"Where are we going?" Quatre asked, his light voice tinged slightly with a slight Arabian accent.

"Zechs'" Duo replied.

"Won't he mind?" Wufei asked, the mid-tone of his voice a little hoarse, as if it was over used.

"He told us to, says he wants to tend to Heero's wounds here." Duo said.

"How come he was caught?" Quatre asked.

"There were too many for even the likes of me." Duo replied, cockily.

"So how come you weren't caught, too?" Trowa asked, suspiciously.

"Chance, Trowa, man, that's what this game is all about." Duo replied. Heero looked over at him and he winked subtly. Heero rolled his eyes but in a slightly amused way, and Duo seemed to be able to notice the tiniest things. 

They went through another door into an ornate hall, and then into a smallish lift. They went up to the third floor. They came out into another plain corridor, and knocked on the first door, a gold number six on it. It opened, seemingly by itself and closed on its own behind them. Heero frowned.

"Confuse you?" Duo asked, grinning.

"No, I just don't like things that move on their own. It means somebody's watching me."

"He's good." Came the silvery voice, and they went through a door into a lounge.

It was roomy, the walls were a pale blue, the floors pine. There were two three-seater sofas and two armchairs. In one of them lounged Zechs, his mask still on. His thick gold hair was now in a thick plait, like Duo's, but not so beautiful in Heero's eyes. His white shirt was un-tucked and the first few buttons were undone, showing a broad muscular chest. His black trousers were loose and his feet were bare. The five boys came in and sat down. Duo sat Heero down on one of the three seaters and plopped himself next to him. Wufei slumped in the free armchair and Quatre and Trowa sat on the other sofa.

"So, what's your name, kid?" Zechs asked. Duo looked over at Heero, who was glaring at the gold haired man. "Well?"

"There aren't any kids in here." Heero said, solidly. Zechs laughed, a silvery laugh that spoke of mirth.

"I like you, boy. Ok, so what's your name, pilot? Better?"

"Heero Yuy."

"Great. Duo been treating you rough?"

"Oh yeah, I beat up all new recruits." Duo cried. He put on a worried face. "Actually, being serious, I wouldn't fight this guy for the world. My life is worth more than that."

"I wouldn't kill you."

"No, that's what I'm worried about." Duo said, and there were a few laughed from the others.

"I take it he's good."

"Shit, yes!" Duo yelled, and the others smiled.

"Shooting?"

"Fast and the most accurate I've ever seen."

"Fighting?"

"Was too busy kickin' my own ass, I didn't see."

"Ability to cope with pain?"

"Well, let's just say that after I shot him he took another…five lives before his gun ran outta rounds."

"Impressive."

"Hell yes!"

"You shot him?" Wufei asked, an eyebrow cocked to one side. Duo looked innocent.

"It wasn't my fault!" he protested, "He would have got himself killed."

"I would have been fine." Heero muttered.

"Shut up, you're not helping." Duo told him, fake pouting. Zechs chuckled to himself.

"Anything bad about this guy?" he asked.

"Well, there is a slight suicidal tendency, but, knowing Treize, he'll probably like that." Duo replied, flatly.

"Even more than Barton?"

"Hey!"

"Yes, even more than Barton. Which is why I wasn't caught."

"What?" Zechs asked.

"He turned his gun on me and told me to get lost, I seem to remember." Duo said, raising his eyes at Heero, who shrugged. 

"That is even worse than Barton!" Zechs exclaimed.

"I'm not that bad." Trowa mumbled, and Quatre placed a pale hand on his knee. Trowa shot a look of gratitude toward the boy, who smiled. 

"Right. Bandages." Zechs said, looking at Heero.

"I'm alright, I don't need it." Heero said, immediately.

"Take Maxwell's jacket off." Zechs said. Reluctantly, Heero did as he asked. Zechs raised his eyes at him with a "told you so" look and disappeared off into the kitchen.

"Jesus, what did they do to you?" Trowa asked. Heero shrugged, and Zechs came back in.

"Winner, do his back." He said. "Stand up." He ordered, and Heero did, coming into the middle. The smallest boy stood up, and then he and Zechs started dressing Heero's wounds. Duo just watched, and winced when they did something he knew would sting, but Heero seemed unaffected. His torso was even more muscular than Wufei's and that was saying something, but it was lean, the muscles rippling under his tanned skin as he moved to Zechs' wishes. There was something too perfect about him, Duo thought. No one can be this good and this stoic without a childhood like hell. He'd had his fair share of them, but he knew that others, not many, but others had had worse, due to news reports on the labs that had been found out. They didn't know what happened there, all evidence (and reporters if necessary) had been destroyed before that got out, but he knew that they were experimented on to make a sort of clone army. Maybe Heero Yuy was one of those.

After about five minutes, Heero was trussed up again.

"Why did you take the first ones off?" Zechs asked. Heero shrugged, and stared grimly at the floor, as he had been doing for the last five minutes. Duo stifled a yawn.

"Why don't you show Yuy his quarters and then the lot of you can get to bed?" Zechs asked, but it was more of an order.

"Yes sir." Duo said, standing and yawning again. Quatre yawned sweetly.

"'Tis contagious." He said, and Trowa smiled warmly at him, standing. Heero bowed his head slightly to Zechs and went to join Duo, who threw the jacket back at him.

"That corridors are chilly, take it." He insisted as Heero tried to give it back.

"So, are you off, too?" Trowa asked Zechs.

"Oh, I shouldn't think so." Duo said, with a grin, "There's probably a certain general he wants to "see" first

"Get going!" Zechs cried, but with a smile. The five trudged out, and he shut the door behind him. They walked back to the lift and went up to the top layer. It was s corridor much the same as the one below. To their right was a door with a gold five on it.

"I shall see you lot tomorrow." Wufei said, and unlocked the door, closing it. Along a little way was another door, with a gold number four on it.

"Bye guys." Quatre yawned and hugged Trowa before going in. 

"Chow" Trowa said as he went through his door, a little later. Then it was just Duo and Heero left walking down it. They passed a door with a two on it.

"My door, but I'll show you round yours first." Duo explained, and then they came to he last door, with a gold number one on it. Duo took out a key from his inner pocket, and opened it. "In you go." He said, and Heero entered. He entered into a large room with a pine floor and white walls. In the middle was a two-seater sofa and an armchair facing a TV. A little way away the wood changed to black and white tiles and the kitchen. It was quite small, but perfectly adequate to make anything. On the far wall was a window out onto the lake. There were large alcoves to the left and right. He and Duo walked into the right one to find a door in the far side. In it was a large bedroom. The walls were a mid, dull green, and the floor was darker wood. There was a very large double bed in the middle of the wall next to the lounge, and a wardrobe opposite it. There was a dresser as well, and a comfy chair in the far right corner. Taking up the far wall was a huge bay window with a deep windowsill, overlooking the lake. In the same wall as the door to the lounge was another door, into a large, blue bathroom with a large corner bath, shower, loo and sink, as well as a mini medical cupboard.

They went out of there and into the other alcove. In the wall facing the entrance to the flat was another door, into a study. It was light, with white walls and a straw coloured carpet. It had a desk with a computer on it and some bookshelves with a few useful books on it. It had a flat window in the far wall. Facing the door into that, was another door, which they went through. This was a kind of walk in wardrobe, with about five different costumes in different cupboards. "You'll learn which ones to wear when soon enough, they drill it into you. This is the one you have to keep locked. The walls come down over it when you press a few buttons on the computer, but I'm not showing you that now." Duo said, as they walked back out. "So, welcome to Oz high, and I'll see you in about…." He moaned, "four and bit hours. We have to be at the briefing room at ten thirty, I'll come pick you up at ten, ok?"

Heero nodded. "See ya then, Heero. And no more suicide attempts!" he cried, grinning at him. Heero raised his eyebrows, and said nothing. Duo grin turned to a warm smile and he rolled his eyes at Heero before walking out of the door. Heero sighed, and realised he hadn't given Duo's jacket back. He shrugged to himself. It was warm, and smelt of leather and Duo. He smelt sweet, smooth, of freshness and newness. He liked it. He walked into his room, and opened the wardrobe, all his clothes were in there, so he hung Duo' jacket, however loathe he was to take it off, on a spare hanger. He went over to the dresser, and opened a drawer. All of his non- hanging clothes were in these drawers and he picked out a loose white T-shirt he used for sleeping in. He pulled it over his head, and then pulled his jeans off, throwing them in a woven basket in the bathroom he guessed was for washing. Dressed now in T-shirt and boxers, he went over to the bed and flipped over the duvet and the sheet under it. He clambered into it, the bedclothes hugging him as he replaced them over himself, and relaxed. It was very comfy, more comfortable than any other bed he had been given to sleep on, and the pillow was feather soft. Before he knew it, he was fast asleep, and the dreams that usually plagued his brain in his non-waking hours were still for the main part of the night, too overloaded with information and new experiences to be able to sort them out yet.


	3. Chapter 3

****

Chapter Three

Duo woke early. When his eyes opened there was only a small light through his curtains. His rooms were in the same style as Heero's, but his room was red instead of green. He sat up, rubbing his eyes, and looked over at the clock. Six; he'd only been asleep an hour. What had woken him? The answer came within seconds. He nearly leapt out of his skin s he heard a shout from through the wall. It was coming from Heero's room. Duo frowned, and a strand of hair fell over his face. He got out of bed, the grey sweat pants all he wore. He walked through his rooms, hearing another shout and moans he quickly brought his untamed hair over one shoulder.

He crept out and to Heero's door. Doors weren't locked at night unless specified, so he pushed it open silently. Silent, funnily enough, was something he was good at. He crept through, shuddering as a moan came from the open bedroom door. He peeked around it. Heero was writhing on the bed, face scrunched up in…something. Every now and again he would shout, sometimes just a yell, sometimes a plead.

"Please!" he yelled, and thrashed around a little. "No!" he cried, and Duo's eyes widened at him. There was something seriously wrong, he had to wake the boy up, but he already knew Heero well enough to know that he would hate to be seen like this. He crept out and got a cushion from one of the sofas. As quick as lightning he threw the pillow at Heero, which hit him, and sped out. Amazingly, he still wasn't quick enough. He yelled as something landed on his back before he had even reached the door. He was turned round and straddled, hands pinning his wrists on the floor. 

Heero was on top of him, face contorted in rage, his cobalt blue eyes blazing like they had done the night before. He was breathing heavily, and Duo couldn't move, let alone speak. His wrists felt like they were being crushed under this boy's immense strength, and he knew that he would have no chance of getting him off if Heero didn't want to, so he just lay still. Slowly, the sounds of their breaths calmed, and Heero frowned. A flash of confusion went across his face before it went passive. God, Duo thought, I already know his face patterns.

"What're you doing here?" Heero asked. He didn't sound angry or confused, he just sounded…blank.

"Um…" Duo said, but renewed pressure on his wrists made him wince. "Ok! OW, let go!" he yelled. Heero jolted his grip, loosening it as if he had forgotten it. 

"I'm not letting go until you tell me what you were doing here. Don't lie to me."

As if I would Duo asked himself. He was shaking, not from the cold.

"Well, you woke me up. I…" he started, after Heero simply looked into his eyes, his cold blue eyes piercing him, "You were dreaming and not liking it, if you get me. So, I came to see if you were ok, and you weren't. Writhing, yelling, not good. So I wanted to wake you up but was afraid you'd hit me if you found out I was here so I threw a cushion and ran but you just happen to be superhuman so I didn't get away and…hehe…here we are."

There was silence after the babble ended. Duo bit his lip. Heero was still staring blankly into his eyes, sending chills down the whole of his body, and his wrists were aching badly under the pressure. Heero's legs were tight on his hips and he was pushing down on his groin, as if he would be able to fight him off. "Heero…man, um…could you…let go? Please? You're hurting me." Duo asked, uncomfortably, after a while. Heero jerked off him to a standing position without seemingly moving a muscle. Duo sat up with a painful gasp, rubbing his wrists, which were red. "I...I'm sorry." He added, after a while as Heero turned away. "I just…you looked like you were having one of those dreams that I have bad dreams about dreaming. I thought you'd like some release, you know…"

"This is to go nowhere, what you heard, what you saw, none of this, you hear?" Heero snapped, turning round.

"Hey! Why would I?" Duo asked.

"New boy losing it?" Heero asked.

"I'm not like that." Duo answered, his face, for once, serious. Their eyes met for not the first time, but this time deadly serious violet eyes surprised the dead blue ones, but they didn't show it. Heero nodded.

"Go back to bed. I'll see you at ten." He said, and walked away. Duo was torn. Part of him wanted to stay, but most of him was totally freaked out and so he scrambled out of the door as fast as he could. He sprinted back into his flat and slammed the door behind him. He shivered, half with cold this time, and went into his bedroom. He pulled a blanket out of the wardrobe and went and laid out on the black leather sofa, tucking himself in, his violet eyes distant as he lost himself in his thoughts.

That boy was strong, too strong. Duo knew he was the best fighter out of the pilots, or was. He hadn't seen Heero fight, but his leanness and strength promised that he was deadly. He found himself shaking with how the young man had just taken him over. The feeling of him doing that had frozen him. He hadn't frozen in battle since…a long time ago. And yet, even though he feared the youth more than any other pilot, more than anybody since that fateful time a long way ago, he also found himself irresistibly drawn to him. There was something about him. Duo knew about masks, and he knew that Heero was full of them. That kid had had some tough shit, that was obvious. He found himself wanting to find out about him, wanting to be let in. He wanted to be close to this lone wolf that had so unexpectedly come into his life. He felt pity for him, but also a great respect coming from his core. With these thoughts whizzing through his head, he drifted back off to sleep.

**************

He woke up to the faint trill of his alarm. He swore thickly and got up to turn it off. He dressed in straight black trousers that fell off his legs and hung on his dark brown suede boots. On his top was a red, long sleeved top, the sleeves rolled up. It was made of a thick cotton, and had a turtle neck with a zip down to half way down his chest which he did up. Over that was a black suede jacket that hung off his shoulders. He did his hair up in the plait, loose, but tight enough for it to be in control. His thick fringe fell thickly over his forehead, his large violet eyes now bright and sparkling with his life. Clicking and winking at his reflection in the mirror, he shoved some gum in his mouth and left the flat, locking it and shoving the key in his pocket. He walked over to Heero's door, and knocked on it. Heero opened it.

"Morning!" Duo cried. Heero nodded and came out, locking the flat and pocketing the key. He was wearing light blue jeans that hugged his upper legs and fell heavily on the top of his brown suede boots, lighter than Duo's. He wore a dark green, loose tank top with thin straps over his shoulders. As they walked he shrugged on a deep blue denim jacket that brought out his deeper blue eyes. Duo felt the almost familiar shiver and kept walking. "Gum?" he asked, offering him some. Heero shook his head and walked on, hands in his pockets. "I'm warning you now," Duo said, as they went into the lift. "Treize is a bastard. He'll hit you with all he words he can and expect you to be fine. Then again, you're pretty good at staring people out, so this could be good."

Heero grunted in response, and then the lift doors opened on the second floor.

"Duo! Who's this?!" came a cry.

"Oh! Is he the new boy?" came another. Duo put his head in his hands and groaned. Two girls came in, and he spotted the approving looks they shot Heero before squeezing in.

"This is Heero Yuy, the new pilot." Duo said. "Heero, this is Relena and Dot."

Relena was a short girl in school clothes and mousy brown hair. She was quite pretty, in a way. Dot was her best friend. She had yellow blonde hair and was in the same school uniform. They spend the whole time down giving Heero flirty looks, which, Duo noticed with interest and amusement, totally ignored. They tried to get him to speak, too, but he just stood there, the most they could out of him was a grunt. By the time they got out, Duo could only just hold on until the doors closed before he collapsed into helpless laughter.

"That!" he said, between laughs, "Was fantastic!"

Heero raised his eyebrows at him, but Duo caught the slight twinkle of amusement in his eyes before they sobered again. He had realised that that was all he was going to get, and continued to giggle randomly as they made their way down, and down and down.

When the doors opened they were in a short, metallic corridor. Duo saw Heero flinch, but only just. It was just in his eyes, really, and Duo pretended he hadn't seen it, and went through. "Come on!" he called, and Heero jogged to catch up with him. They came into a huge room, full of TV screens and machinery. The rest of the pilots were there, and Zechs and a few others Heero didn't know.

"Finally, the new boy!" A man cried. He was tall, and had copper, cropped hair. He was well built and was in a blue suit of the army.

"We're early, Treize!" Duo yelled back.

"That's "sir" to you, Maxwell. As penance, you will be the first to fight him."

Heero looked over as Duo paled.

"You…you gotta be kidding, sir. Shouldn't..? Wufei has the best technique, sir." He called back. Wufei laughed.

"Heero! What have you done to him? It takes a lot for him to admit that!" he called, and Heero shrugged.

"Ah, a non-speaker, I see." The man named Treize said as they came up to him. "Come here, boy."

The others watched as Heero went up to the man, and looked at each other nervously. No pilot had ever survived an introduction by Treize before. Would Heero?

"He's got a pretty good chance." Duo muttered in the answer to the un-voiced question.

"Heero Yuy." Treize said. Heero said nothing. "I guess we should introduce you. That is Zechs, Marquise, sir to you. He wears a mask because if he looks at anyone, they will burn into a crisp, he was part of an experiment, went wrong. You don't look too impressed." He said, after a while. "Explain."

"I have seen his eyes, sir, the mask does not hide them. Most likely it is to protect his identity to those who may try and enter here as a spy, sir." Heero replied, calmly, and there was a cheer from Duo behind them and a few chuckles from the others. Treize glared at them.

"Shut up." He snapped. "Ok." He started again. "That is Noin. Cross her and she will take out the whip she has in her flat and flog you within an inch of your life. Now, argue with that. What's the reason you don't believe that, huh?"

"The insulted glare she's giving you, sir." Heero replied, flatly. Treize spun round and the short, dark haired woman, shrugged and winked at Heero. Duo clamped his hand over his mouth to stop him laughing, as did the others.

"Fine. That is Lady Une. She can have you executed on the spot. Bet you don't believe that, do you."

"Yes, sir, I do." Heero replied.

"Why?"

"From the proud way she raised her head and nodded when you said that, sir." Heero said, "But even she cannot do that, it is against army rules, I would have to be court marshalled first."

The rest of them, including Zechs and Noin burst into fits of laughter as Treize and Lady Une's faces fell.

"Fabulous!" Quatre cried, giggling.

"Congratulations!" Wufei laughed.

"You go Heero!" Duo yelled, and went on laughing again.

"Shut up!" Treize yelled, and they fell into a giggling silence. "Right" he said, looking at Heero. "I've changed my mind. I'm fighting you first. Go with the pilots. They will prepare you. Be at the ring in five. Go."

As he left, there was a deathly hush.

"Oops." Noin said, grimacing.

"Hey, I have a slight suspicion Heero will surprise us." Duo said, and the others looked at him. "I can scrape past Treize, right? Well, since I've come to know Heero, I've got the feeling he's quite a bit better than me, due to his general superhumaness."

"Even so, he needs to be careful. Heero." Noin said, coming towards him. She took his jacket off to reveal the loose top and the thin straps over his lean chest. "Duo, can you get him some sweat pants from the cupboard, he hasn't time to go get any of his if he has any." Duo sped off. "Now, Heero. He's big and bulky, but he's on the slow side alright, and he's heavy, you need to make him loose his balance, which is difficult, because he knows that's his weak spot."

"Here." Duo said and shoved some black sweat pants into his hands. Then, Duo put a hand round his shoulders and the other three came with them as they went through a door into a small changing room. Heero quickly slipped into the sweat pants, revealing that his legs were lean but hard with muscle. He frowned as Duo put his hands on his shoulders.

"Heero, man. Don't die." He said, and the others smiled. "I don't want you to die on us. Thrash him for us."

"Please?" Quatre asked.

"Bastard." Trowa muttered.

"Wipe the floor with him for us." Wufei growled.

"No pressure or anything." Duo said, rolling his eyes, and Heero grunted blankly. There was a bell, and Heero went out of another door.

"Does he ever talk, Duo?" Trowa asked.

"He doesn't need to." Duo answered, another rare thoughtful moment coming out before they walked out, too and went into the audience. It was a large, white room, with a large raised section. Treize was standing at one end in karate get up, and Heero was standing simply at the other. Duo found, like the others, who were gathered there, too, that, however more professional Treize was dressed and acted, there was a sense of power that radiated off Heero that seemed to take over the whole stage. They found themselves believing Duo when he had said that Treize would be in trouble. Most of them, apart from Une, were looking forward to it immensely. It had been too long since Treize had been thrashed.

"Three…Two…One…Fight!" Zechs shouted. Treize started circling closer and closer to Heero, who was still standing there.

"Come on, boy, aren't you going to fight me?" Treize taunted. Duo noted Heero's hands clench, but that was the only part of him that moved. Treize was keeping his distance, and just circling, circling him. When Treize was only a few feet away, he suddenly yelled and grabbed Heero round the waist. He twirled him in the air and threw him down to the floor, head first. At a gasp from everyone, Heero's hands came over his head and propelled him up in a flip. As soon as he had landed, he flipped back, his hands by his sides, and did a no hands flip, his booted feet crashing down on Treize's shoulders. He flipped over Treize's body as he landed and Treize flipped up to find a square punch in his nose. As he staggered backwards. Heero went low and swung his leg under his body, sweeping Treize off his feet. Before he could hit the ground, Heero had slid under him and placed a firm kick in his back, sending him flying up again. Finally, he spun and landed a kick in his stomach with a thud and Treize flew over a few metres before landing on the floor.

The others were left speechless. They had never seen anything like it, and Heero wasn't even breathing hard. Treize staggered up, his nose bleeding, and got his bearings. Heero was just standing again, and that enraged Treize to no end. He ran towards Heero with a roar and swung his leg into his side. Heero was thrown off, but cart-wheeled twice with the momentum and then, he used that momentum to swing his legs around so they were horizontal, catching Treize in the thigh. He held that for a few seconds, hands on the floor, holding the rest of his body horizontal, before he flipped up. He grabbed Treize by the collar of his gi and lifted him clean above his head, so Treize's feet were off the ground. Then, with what looked like ease, he tossed him over his shoulder where Treize raised his hand, beaten, and groaning. 

There was a silence like no other.

"Er…KO?" Duo asked.

"My god." Zechs breathed, "I've never seen anything like it."

"I couldn't see anything at all, he was too fast!" Quatre exclaimed.

"Now get at me for saving his ass, Treize." Duo said.

"Why?" Heero asked, and Duo winced.

"Didn't you know?" Zechs asked, "He went deliberately against orders to get you out of there. You should have been left."

"Yeah, but…" Duo tried, but Heero had simply glared at him and was now walking out of the door. "Heero!" he cried, and ran after him. He went into the changing room and found him doing up his jeans already, a glare on his face. "Heero, listen."

"You went against orders." 

"I couldn't just leave you there!"

"Why not?"

"…"

"You didn't even know me, you had no reason to take those risks."

"Apart from not letting someone I know being taken by the bad guys."

"You didn't know me."

"No, but I'd met you."

"And that means you give a damn, does it?"

"Yes!" Duo cried, as Heero went back into the briefing room. "I'm sorry if that's the way I am!"

"Good." Heero muttered.

"What's wrong with it, Heero? Why don't you like it?"

"I'm not worth it. You could have been killed, I wasn't wanted and you just did it anyway. It shows weakness that you don't know how to follow orders."

Duo stopped dead and just stared at him as Heero walked up the stairs, unaware of what he'd just done. He looked down, the pain clear on his face and ran out the other door, the door that led to the gardens. Trowa stepped out from the changing room door, a grim look on his face. Heero really had no idea what he'd just said.


	4. Chapter 4

****

Chapter Four

Heero closed the door behind him angrily. He didn't slam it; he never slammed doors, or raised his voice. A soldier should be controlled, or he will make mistakes. He shuddered as he once again remembered where that had been drilled into him. He slumped down on the white, coarse sofa. He glared at nothing in particular. Duo had deliberately gone against orders, disobeyed them directly, to save his life. Unwittingly, he had also set fireworks off in Heero's brain. One part, the trained part, was embarrassed because he was the cause of such an action. Everything inside screamed that it was wrong, he should be punished, should be told how wrong it was. Then there was the part that Duo had woken when he first walked in the day before. Heero found part of his glowing because Duo had done such an awful thing for him. He shook his head roughly to forget it and glared at the TV. It was wrong, what Duo had done was wrong, and he, Heero…

He stopped. He didn't know what to do. He knew he had been harsh down in the room, but he had meant it, or had he? He knew Duo was good at what he did, knew he was on control, but Heero was always in control, or always had been before Duo came into it. He was rudely jolted from his thoughts by a knock on the door. He glared at it before standing up and walking over. He opened it quickly to glare at the person behind it. It was Trowa. Trowa, looking sternly right back into Heero's blazing eyes with his own blazing, bright green eyes that Heero had never really noticed before.

"Can I speak to you, please?" Trowa asked, but it wasn't a question. Heero smouldered gently, but opened the door wider for him, closing it behind him. Trowa walked into the middle of the room. He was wearing white jeans that hugged his legs all the way down to his grey, elegant boots. His long sleeved polo neck was deep bottle green, bringing out the eyes that were now facing the window. His hair stuck out as it always did, but it looked elegant all the same, everything about him was elegant. Heero stood by the door, simply glaring at him, his hands in loose fists. There was a silence that was too long, but Heero stayed quiet. "You didn't mean what you said to Duo." Trowa said, finally. Heero was taken aback a little. It seemed like a strange thing to say.

"I did." Heero replied, simply. Who was this guy to tell him what he meant and what he didn't? But now Trowa spun round, his eyes blazing even fiercer than ever, though his voice was calm.

"No, you didn't, Heero because you don't know what that meant to him." he said. Heero frowned. "Has he ever said anything about his past to you? I doubt he has, but…"

"Yes." Heero interrupted. His lightning mind worked a few things out.

__

"Where I came from we were taught that killing and maiming for release was alright so long as the cause was holy, people give you bullshit, you just have to work out what's wrong and right for yourself."

"Well?"

Heero was silent.

_"It shows weakness that you don't know how to follow orders."_

He felt a stab of guilt in his stomach. What if that was exactly what made Duo so strong? Heero found himself hoping all he could that that wasn't the case, and then frowned even more. Why did he care?

"Heero?" Trowa asked. Heero looked up at him, deep blue eyes less fierce now. "What did he say?"

"I don't know." Heero answered, and Trowa sighed.

"Well, just…I know that you think all soldiers should be invincible but just…don't call him weak because he doesn't blindly jump off cliffs just because some big-shot tells him to, ok?" Trowa said, and then walked out, leaving Heero standing in the middle of the floor, staring into space. What had he just done? And why did he suddenly care about a boy he hardly knew? What had Duo done to him in the short time he knew him?

**************

Heero was kept busy the rest of the day with numerous assessments and tests. He flew past the medical, the test flight in a re construction of a Gundam flight and the endurance. He could answer every military based question straight away, and chose all the right answers to strategic questions. He was shown around the place by Zechs, who he found he liked. He was deadly serious, he found out, and amazed to find out that he was the legendary Lightning Count, feared amongst his enemies and praised amongst his allies. Heero was only too aware of how much on Treize's wrong side he had got, but Wufei had been beaten by him in a sword battle once and they were mortal enemies, so he obviously didn't have it that bad. He was shown how to use his computer by Quatre, who was the computer whiz of the group, but they soon found that Heero's knowledge of it far exceeded the young Arabian. He swapped fighting techniques with Wufei, although the Chinese boy painfully admitted that, although his technique was far the best, in hand to hand combat Duo would win hands down every time. He specialised in the staff and sword. Trowa tested his agility. He worked, undercover as a clown/acrobat in a circus, and trained the animals there. Heero found himself liking the place. There were people there that maybe confused him a little, but it was military enough to be secure and he knew that the work would be challenging yet engrossing. He looked forward to seeing his Gundam the next day.

He came back to his quarters at around eleven at night, not exhausted, but "comfortably tired". He poured himself some cold water in the kitchen, and then went into his room and sat on the large windowsill, draining the glass in one gulp. He looked out over the large lake, reflecting the full moon and stars, to the wooded side of the valley, and the hut half way up the side. He looked over to his right, and stopped. In his own bay window seat, sat Duo. He was scrunched up, arms around his legs, head resting on his knees, the full moon reflecting in his gorgeous violet eyes which looked out at the lake, without seeing it. The stab of guilt came back in Heero's stomach, and suddenly he remembered.

_The young boy with the blue eyes came up to her. She smiled sweetly, a strand of chocolate hair falling over her face. As he approached, her little black lab puppy licked at his hands, and he stroked it, smiling._

"I'm Heero." He said, looking up at her. "What's your name?"

"Selphie." The girl replied, shyly. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Nine." He said, proudly. "What about you."

"I'm eight, but I'm nine in two weeks and three days." She added, urgently, and he simply smiled at her again.

"Do you…do you want to come on the swings with me?" he asked, a little shyly. She smiled and nodded. He beamed, and stood up. He stretched out a nimble hand, and she took it.

"You can hold him, if you like." She said, offering the lead to him. He took it in the other hand.

"What's his name?" he asked.

"His name's Benji." She said.

"That's a good name for a dog." He replied, and she smiled again, sweetly.

They spent the whole afternoon in the park, playing tag and mucking about on the climbing frames. He would push her on the swing, and then they'd play with Benji in the leaves, the little puppy barking crazily in excitement. 

It was only when the sun was going under the horizon that the boy said he had to go.

"Where do you have to go?" Selphie asked.

"I have to go and do my job." He said.

"You have a job?" she asked, eyes wide in awe. He puffed his chest out proudly.

"Yes." He said. The girl bit her lip nervously.

"Where do you live?" she asked, quietly.

"I can't tell you, it's a secret." Heero said. "So you'll have to tell me where you live so I can come and visit you on my days off."

"I live in Hampton House on 5th Avenue." She said. "Come and visit me whenever you like."

Then, she leant over and kissed him on the cheek before running off with Benji, giggling. Heero smiled at her, lifting a hand to his cheek where she had kissed it. He'd never really had a friend before. He liked her; she was fun and funny.

When he got back to the base, he was smiling such a lot people noticed. He came into the main room.

"Evening, sir." he said, lifting himself onto a stool.

"You're happy." The man said.

"I made a friend today." He said.

"Good, good. Right, you know what to do." The man told him. "The explosives are set, you just need to press the button and find it."

"Where is it?"

"5th Avenue." The doctor said, "A block of flats called Hampton House."

Heero, without another thought, made his fingers blurs as they used the computer. Hampton House 5th Avenue. He found 5th Avenue. Hampton House 5th Avenue. He found Hampton House. Hampton House 5th Avenue? He pressed the detonator for five minutes. Hampton House 5th Avenue!

"No!" he yelled, and sprinted out of the room. The task he had just put in was irreversible, he knew that. He also knew that it was a tight five minutes at a sprint from here to the centre of town, and another minute from there to 5th Avenue. His stomach was jumping, his heart had stopped, his eyes wide, breathing ragged as he sped through the town bumping into people.

"Selphie." He whispered, "Get out. Selphie." He carried on calling her, and got louder and louder. His too accurate body clock told him he had one minute. He sped round the corner, and started screaming. "Selphie! Selphie!" he yelled, his voice raw and desperate. He saw a brown haired girl poke he head out the window in the block, about two hundred feet away.

"Heero!" she cried.

"Get…" he was cut off by an explosion. Instinctively he threw himself to the ground as the flames flew over him and clamped his hands over his ears. As soon as it was over, and the heat had gone he got up.

"Selphie!" he yelled, "Selphie!" he could hear other screams, but they were of simple panic. He sprinted towards the building, ignoring people yelling at him to stop. He ran into the piles of rubble, searching, searching…and stopped dead. Lying, half blown away, torn, burnt, was Benji's lead.

Heero shuddered. After that he had pleaded from Doctor J to train out his emotions. He couldn't deal with it. But, looking over at Duo, he realised that the doctors had failed. He felt. He could feel, even if he didn't know what it was, and suddenly, how he didn't know, but all his fears suddenly became less probable and more certain and he jumped up.

He set the empty glass down in the kitchen and walked out of the door and down the corridor. He tried Duo's door. It was open. He slid it wide and went inside, shutting it quietly. There was no noise and the flat was dark. He walked over, his boots making a seemingly deafening noise on the wooden floor. He went over to the entrance to Duo's room. It was the same as his, bed, wardrobe, dresser, but it was deep red, the floors dark wood. In the window, oblivious to Heero being there, was Duo. He had taken off his jacket and top, leaving his creamy, lean chest bare. Heero could see the tight muscles dormant all over his torso and arms. The black trousers hung loosely on his legs, and covered his black socks on his feet. His back was curved as he hugged his legs, his lightly muscled arms holding him firmly up. His chin rested on his knees, his full lips together, his large eyes reflecting the moon and stars as he stared straight ahead. His braid lay down the curve of his back and rested on the seat behind him. The moon highlighted parts of it and that plus the moon lighting parts of his skin made him look like an angel, dreaming of where he had fallen from. Yet there was a darkness in his eyes that no pure angel could ever have.

__

Heero un-froze himself with difficulty, and found that he almost couldn't speak.

"Duo." He croaked, finally. Duo didn't even jump, simply turned his head so his all-reflecting eyes rested on Heero's. Heero looked down; he couldn't keep the eye contact.

"What?" Duo's voice was cold, blank, expressionless, and a knot of nerves appeared in Heero's stomach. He fiercely pushed it down, perfect soldiers didn't fear, but, he had to admit, none of his training had prepared him for this.

"I need to talk to you." Heero managed, knowing he was condemning himself. He didn't use words, he couldn't, he didn't know how. There was a tense silence.

"So talk." Duo said, his voice the same as before. Heero hated this. He knew what he had to say, but he couldn't…he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"I…I…I'm…"

"Spit it out, Heero." Duo snapped, the first emotion appearing in his voice as annoyance. Heero felt a flash of anger. Didn't he understand how hard this was for him? As he thought about this, the automatic pilot part of him did what it did whenever he was scared of doing something. Namely, did it without him thinking about it.

"I'm sorry." He blurted, suddenly. He nearly gasped in surprise at himself. He hadn't apologised since…he didn't think he'd ever apologised. Duo's face once again turned to him, and this time, Heero forced himself to stare into those violet eyes that haunted him. He found himself delving deeper than he meant to. Duo let him. He saw the flashes of pain, guilt, anger, self-hatred, hatred in general and fear. Unable to keep it, Heero broke the eye contact, unnerved. He had no idea how Duo just let him do that. He'd be damned before he ever felt safe enough to let anyone see that far into his heart.

"You can have no idea." Duo whispered, suddenly. Heero looked back up at him, almost starting at the desperateness in Duo's eyes.

"Yes," Heero said, "I can."

He saw Duo's eyes meet his, questioning, desperate, needing, and for the first time since, well, ever, he dropped his mask, and let a few moments go by with his eyes saying what his heart felt. There was almost a visible beam between the two. Guilt, pity, understanding and something that looked dangerously like support streaming out of deep blue eyes and pouring all they had into the violet eyes that grabbed at them. Then, Heero blinked, and the emotions were gone, the dead look coming back into his face, and Duo looked away. There was a very long pause as both boys stared at their feet.

"Thanks." Duo whispered after a while. Heero didn't need anymore. He was fighting his own battle. He knew he should go, but Duo was still looking so sad, he couldn't. Once, again, his automatic pilot came into play. He took the steps and ended up right by Duo, was staring out onto the lake again, lost. Before he knew what he was doing, Heero had placed a hand on Duo's shoulder. Duo jumped at the touch, and looked up, starting again as he saw how close Heero was. Heero's look was stern, but strength seemed to flow from it, as it did from the warmth of his hand on Duo's smooth, cold shoulder.

Then, he was gone, without moving it seemed, and Duo was left looking at empty air. But Duo could still feel his hand on his shoulder, and could still smell his musty, dangerously intoxicating smell. He smelt of age-old newness, of safety, of protection. Duo shuddered involuntarily. It was so small, what Heero had done, and yet it meant so much. What had this boy done to him? Since when did he lose control like that? Since when did a look and a touch make him feel like everything was going to be ok again? Sick of sitting at the window, Duo got up. He almost felt cold where Heero should be, and found himself wanting Heero to hold him. He shook his head worriedly, he'd always thought that, although he went for both, he'd always be a ladies man, but then, he smiled. He had a sneaking suspicion that if Heero were a girl, he'd want him/her just as much. He shook his head again. He didn't fancy Heero, it was just that Heero had just helped him through a tough patch, you always feel like this after someone has done that, don't you? Yes, of course you do.

He slumped in the armchair and switched the TV on. It was some crap action movie, but Duo found himself immersing himself in it. It was a blessing to turn his brain off for a while, he'd been using it too much today. He snuggled up deeper into the chair and grabbed the blanket from the sofa where he'd fallen asleep the morning before. He settled into the movie, all thoughts of guilt, of orders and especially of Heero out of his head. He blissfully fell asleep before the film ended and started snoring loudly as the main character dodged five machine guns, killing the gunmen and jumping out of a five storey window, walking away from it, unharmed, to get the girl.

__


	5. Chapter 5

****

Chapter 5

Heero's eyes opened, and he stretched, a little painfully. He was laid out on his bed, still fully clothed. He sighed and got up, walking into the blue bathroom. He stripped off and stepped into the shower. He turned it to cold, and felt the frigid water coursing all over him, waking his whole body up in seconds. He never took hot showers; he wasn't used to them. He rubbed some shampoo into his hair and rubbed soap all over before coming out and grabbing a towel from the rack. It was wonderfully soft.

He had been told the day before to come to the briefing room in his working uniform, so he went over the lounge into the study. He pressed a few buttons on his keyboard and heard the wall slide up into the ceiling. The towel wrapped around his hips, he walked into the wardrobe, and dressed in the uniform, looking at his reflection in the full-length mirror. He didn't look at himself that often, didn't think it was necessary, but he did now. The working uniform for them was mid-green combats that hung on the heavy black boots they wore on their feet. Luckily, he had a green top he was allowed to wear, and so he shoved one of his many green tank tops on. Over that was a combat jacket. It was mid-green at the top, but changed to a deep blue at the shoulder with a white dividing line. On his left breast pocket was an identity badge, and there were many pockets in it. The collar was blue, and the sleeves were long and had no cuffs, not really. He looked at himself, not really judging, just looking. He had never tried to tame the shock of messy dark brown hair that was on his head and wasn't going to try now. He took a look at his face, and turned away almost immediately. He couldn't make eye contact with himself; he never had been able to, not after…then. He hated their dead look, and feared what he would see if he stared into them long enough.

He came out, shutting the door and wall behind him and hung his towel up before collecting his key and locking his flat door as he came out. He was up quite early, well, late for him, about eight thirty, but there was still no sound from the pilot's corridor. He walked all the way down and went into the lift, pressing for the ground floor. The lift came out into the ornate corridor and then he went off through the little wooden door on the right. He came into the small passage he had first entered this place through, and then went out into the morning air.

The crunch of his boots on the gravel seemed to be the only sound apart from a few birds. The fresh morning air filled his nostrils with a sharp tang, the slightly salty smell of the lake mingled with the freshness of the pine forest. He crunched over the gravel, past Duo's car and onto the dirt path that led to the lake. He walked over the slight shingle beach and stopped just before the waves started lapping at the pebbles, just looking. The lake, light blue, reflecting the puffy clouds in the sky, the sun still being behind the house, looked so different than it had the night before. Then it had been a thing of beauty, of danger, and of something he couldn't grasp, but felt through the whole of his body. It was a lot less menacing now, with a few birds flying over it, reflecting in the deep blue of Heero's eyes that spoke of waters much deeper, greater and more powerful than this. Heero let the light breeze make his hair wave a little in the wind, and relaxed his whole body, his eyes letting go for a minute, just taking in the beauty that was all around him. I belong here now, he thought to himself, this is my home.

He got control of his body and the perfect soldier face snapped back on as he heard the back door open and close, and the crunch of heavy boots over gravel. He turned, and saw Duo walking over the gravel towards him. He was in the same uniform as Heero, green combats, black boots and combat jacket with identity tag, but he was wearing a collared shirt, grey/green in colour, the collar buttoned down and a dark green tie running down his chest. Heero saw him grimace as he caught him looking at it.

"They said the tops I chose weren't good enough so chucked me in this thing." He called out as he got on the dirt path. His clear voice rang out over the valley, adding a human sound, but not disturbing the peace. Heero simply grunted, and turned back to the lake as Duo came up by his side. "Gorgeous, isn't it?" Duo said, simply, smiling beside Heero. Heero didn't reply, simply stood and watched as some sort of sea bird dived at the lake, disappeared and came up, a helpless fish flapping in its talons. "Makes you feel kinda sorry for the fish, huh?" Duo said, turning to Heero and grinning. Heero simply nodded. "Come on, let's go eat." Duo said, putting a hand on Heero's arm and steering him round. "I'm famished!"

"You just got up." Heero said as they walked back.

"That's one thing you gotta learn about me, man. I eat all the time." Duo said.

"That would be one more thing I have to learn about you, then?" Heero said. Duo beamed at him.

"I'm not so shallow as all that, you know?" he said, proudly.

"I always knew that." Heero replied, quietly, and held the door open for him, shutting out the cold air behind him as the walked up the passage.

"So, sleep ok last night?" Duo asked.

"Well I didn't get a visit from you so I guess, yes." Heero replied, getting a grin.

"I was just looking out for you, you know." He said as they headed off down the ornate corridor, "I mean, you were yelling and moaning and as I didn't think you were that kind of guy I was worried."

"What do you mean by "that kind of guy"?" Heero asked as they entered the canteen.

"You know perfectly well what I mean." Duo said, grinning lecherously and going to the food bar. Heero sighed loudly and followed him.

"Duo, you here already?" the woman behind the counter asked him.

"Oh, you know me, Vi." Duo said. "I'll have the biggest thing going."

"Thought you would." Vi said, rolling her eyes at him in Heero's direction. "You new?" she asked him, smiling at him strangely. He nodded. "What can I do you?"

"Just a coffee, thanks." He said. She gave him that strange smile again and disappeared into the kitchens. Duo turned to him, a slightly disbelieving frown on his face.

"You do it on purpose, don't you?" he asked.

"What?"

"She was flirting with you, man. Vi was flirting with you. Vi was flirting full stop!" he added, a disgusted look on his face. "I'm gonna be mentally scarred for life!"

Heero could help letting his eyes glint with amusement at Duo's face. He glowed inside as Duo's grin turned into a smile as he saw it. He was the only person Heero knew that noticed, and it almost made him feel special that he tried so hard. In answer to Duo's warm smile, he warmed his eyes a little, and the glow grew as Duo's eyes lit up.

"Here you go, boys." Vi said, coming back. She handed Duo a massive tray of food with just enough room for Heero's coffee in the corner. "Enjoy." She said, giving Heero that smile again. Heero elbowed Duo quite hard in the ribs as he grinned at him. The boy's face twisted in an over-dramatic howl of pain.

"Ow!" he yelled, "Watch it, Superman, you'll break me!"

"Tell me which part of that is a bad thing." Heero muttered, picking the tray up and taking it over to a table. Part of him was shocked. He was having a normal, guy argument. He didn't do that, did he? He did now, he decided. He was too busy to notice the warm, slightly surprised but beaming face of Duo behind him. Heero was being almost warm, to him. Why did that make him feel so special again? Oh yeah, cause he was supposed to be "perfect soldier". Or something.

They sat at the table, and Duo shovelled the whole plate of food down his throat before Heero had finished his coffee.

"You have it black?" Duo asked, once.

"Yup."

"Sugar?"

"Nope."

"Just plain?"

"Yup."

"Ok."

So they ate or drank in comfortable silence, not needing to talk really. At about nine, Trowa and Quatre cam in closely followed by Wufei. They were all in working uniform. Trowa had the same shirt and tie on as Duo, as did Quatre, but Wufei had a deep blue tank top, a bit like Heero's but blue not green. They all got a smallish breakfast and came and sat at the table.

"Morning guys." Trowa said as he tucked into a slice of toast.

"Morning." Duo said, having just finished. "Ow!" he cried, as Wufei sharply hit his hand when he tried to steal some toast.

"You're still hungry?" Heero asked, and only Duo was trained enough to see the slight disbelief in his face. He just grinned, and nodded. Heero closed his eyes and shook his head, getting a chuckle from Trowa.

"You still have to get used to Duo's eating habits." He said. "Which are mainly: all the time."

"Oh, shut up guys, I just have high metabolism, or is it low?" Duo asked.

"High, if you had low you'd probably get stuck in the door." Heero replied, and the others laughed.

"He does anyway, doesn't he?" Quatre asked, and Duo scowled at him, playfully.

"When do we have to go?" Wufei asked, finished.

"Eleven," Trowa said, "We still have two hours."

"Well, why don't we show Heero the Gundams?" Duo asked. "I guess he should see it before he's asked to use it."

"Sounds like fun." Trowa said. "Quatre?"

"Sure."

"I'm up for it." Wufei said.

"Sound good to you?" Duo asked Heero, and he nodded. He wanted to see what he was expected to pilot.

The five pilots got up, thanked Vi and then went back out to the corridor. They squeezed into the lift, and the others laughed as Duo told them about Vi flirting with Heero. They laughed even more and started congratulating him when Duo told them about the girls the day before. Heero, for one of the first times in his life, felt part of something. They were laughing, with him if he laughed, and including him in everything. 

They went down, further than the briefing room, to somewhere he'd never been. When the lift opened, they were in a large hanger with scientists buzzing around. Heero froze. This was too much like home, he didn't like it. Metal walls meant metal labs, scientists meant experiments, experiments meant pain…

"Heero?" It was Duo's voice, soft, worried, far away. "Heero, what is it?" Heero felt a hand on his own, and the physical contact brought him rushing back to reality. The others had gone, and Duo was standing next to him, his hand on Heero's own. Heero frowned and shook his head.

"Nothing." He said, quickly, and stepped onto the bridge around the top of the room, trying not to let Duo see how scared he was. Duo walked behind him, frowning in worry at the boy walking in front of him. He had just faded out. Duo knew that Heero was scared, and could see how much it was taking to walk through this place, but he didn't know why. What had Heero gone through in places like this to make him so scared? His experimental lab theory was quickly becoming dangerously possible.

They went through a door, and Heero stopped with the rest of them, looking around in awe. The room itself was massive, and there were five docks around the room with huge numbers over the head of each one. The one on their left had the number 5 on the top. All of the massive robots were over one hundred feet tall and humanoid. This one had great silver legs, blue belt and arms and huge silver and blue shoulder pads that went way out. On one arm was a round shield, yellow on blue, and its chest was red, stuck out where the pilot went. On its other arm was some kind of propelling device that looked like it was for disks. Across its back was a huge staff that was longer than the robot itself. Like the others, its head was relatively small, and almost round, with two eyes that were now dead looking. On top was a sort of crown with what looked like lightning bolts coming out of the forehead, and tiny wing like things for ears. It was magnificent.

"That," Wufei said, as Heero looked it up and down, "Is Shenlong, my Gundam. I call it my Nataku."

Heero nodded and moved on top the next Gundam. Number 4. This Gundam had almost white legs and upper arms; its shoulder pads shaped like feathery wings, a black chest and lower arms. On one arm was a hexagonal black shield with red eyes and gold all around, two strong looking a tooth coming out of the bottom. The other hand seemed free. The head had the dull green eyes of all the Gundams, and the pilot's seat was just below its chin. It had a crown in the shape of a mohekan, and two stabs of gold, one short, one long stabbed out from its forehead up and pointing towards the back of the massive machine.

"Sandrock," Quatre said, proudly, "My Gundam." Again, Heero moved onto the next, number 3.

This Gundam was more heavily built than the others, its massive dark silver legs carrying what looked like concealed weapons. Great, red plates covered its thighs, chest, shoulder pads and lower arms. The lower arms of this Gundam were absolutely huge. One massive black hand held a short sword, and the other held a machine gun about the size of a lorry. The bulging chest showed where the pilot sat, and the shoulder pads looked like they had even more ammo or guns hidden in them. The top half of the skull was the deep red, the gold crown in a wide "Y" position on its forehead. Two stripes of dark blue covered the silver pilot's cabin, and there was a huge, rectangular shield over the machine gun.

"That is my Gundam." Trowa said, quietly, but proudly. "He is called Heavyarms."

Next was number 2, and this Gundam looked the scariest out of them. It was almost all black, apart from a few joints. Sometimes, the linings would be gold, but apart from that, the green of the eyes and the small and few red points, there was no other colour. In, like the others, the left arm, there was a smallish shield. It was black, red and gold, and had three dangerous looking silver spikes right on the end. The head was mostly black, only the face silver, the gold crown a rough, wide "W" shape and the pilot's cabin was just under the chin. Under the huge, curved shoulder pads, Heero could just see the barrels of guns, but it was what the right arm held that confused him. A black staff, as long as Shenlong's, but at the end it was square, and looked like two things fitted right into the slots there.

"Deathscythe," Duo breathed beside him. "That's where I got my nickname, you know."

"Nickname?" Heero asked.

"For those that he saves, and those he kills." Trowa explained, "They call him the God of Death."

Heero was a little thrown. Out of all the pilots, the one he would choose as being the one who drove this fearful thing and the one being called that was not the bubbly, happy-go-lucky boy he knew that Duo was. But then again, there was always his past…

"What's the staff?" he asked.

"No staff." Duo said, "Scythe. You'll see when we go into battle in these babies."

Finally, Heero looked at the last, number 1, which must be his, he thought. He had been told that his was the leader, the strongest all round, and it certainly looked the part. It was slightly bigger than the rest of them by a few tens of feet. The bottoms of its massive feet were red, and its huge legs were all silver, gleaming. He could see guns in the feet, and there were probably more concealed away somewhere. Its torso was deep blue, with red lining, and in the middle was a sphere of green, see through substance with a gold lining, which Heero guessed was the cabin. The upper arms were silver, the lower that deep blue again. In the right had was a huge shield in a sort of kite shape, red and silver. The shoulder pads were blue and silver, guns almost certainly concealed in them. Sticking out at the back looked like two huge aeroplane wings. In the right hand was a massive ray gun, as big as Heavyarm's machine-gun, but scarier. The head was white silver, the crown like a red jewel with two thin, straight wings coming out either side, white flaps as ears. It was magnificent.

"That's Wing." Duo whispered, by his ear, "It can transform into a plane if you want it to. They saw it's one of the most powerful. And they chose you to pilot it, Heero, either it or you has to be pretty special, probably both."

As what Duo had just said started to sink in, there was a shout from the door, and they all spun round. Treize, Noin, Une and Zechs had all sprinted into the hanger, panting from running all the way. Their eyes were wide and urgent, and they sprinted up to the boys.

"What the hell's got you lot going?" Duo asked.

"An attack." Treize said, "On the city. Five motion dolls are headed this way."

"Five what?" Heero asked.

"We'll tell you boys, get up and going. No, Heero!" Heero stopped as Treize called him. "You're not going."

"What?!" Duo yelled, skidding to a halt, "But we need him!"

"No!" Treize shouted, "He doesn't know what he's doing yet; he could hold you down. Now get moving."

"Sir, I…" Heero started.

"What?!" Treize interrupted.

"I think it would be good if I went, I would even out the numbers."

"No, Yuy, you are staying here. That is an order!" he yelled, as Heero opened his mouth again. He shut it, glaring at the man. It was an order; there was nothing he could do about it.

"Heero, this way." Zechs, said, and put an arm on his shoulders, guiding him up into a lift with the other four. They went up to a room with televisions, monitoring equipment and communications in it. It was glass all the way around so that the whole of the hanger could be seen. Heero watched as Trowa, Quatre, Wufei and Duo climbed up the ladders that led to the hatches. Treize, who was sitting next to a whole side of buttons and levers, pressed one, and four out of the five hatches opened. In front of Noin were the televisions in the cabins, and Heero watched as the four pilots got strapped in. It looked tight, and compact, but he didn't care. He wanted to be out there.

Next to Noin's space was Lady Une, in front of the monitoring equipment. One quick look told Heero they had all the latest equipment to check up on all the Gundams to the tiniest detail. Next to her sat Zechs, head phones on his head and sitting in front of the communications. 

"Make us hear them, Zechs." Treize said and Zechs pulled a button. There was nothing for a minute until Heero saw the pilots put a set of headphones on their heads and press a button on the dashboard of the Gundam.

"This is Lightning to pilots. Do you read me?" Zechs asked, loudly and clearly.

"Pilot 02, affirmative." Duo said, his voice still clear.

"Pilot 03, affirmative." Trowa echoed.

"Pilot 04, affirmative." Quatre called.

"Pilot 05, affirmative." Wufei finished.

"Right, boys, do your own checks." Zechs ordered.

"Ok, guys." Duo said. "Say "hey!" if you can here me."

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

"Thanks, Duo. Just say yes, guys."

"Yup!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

"You know me, everybody." Quatre said.

"D!"

"T!"

"W!"

"And again, men."

"D!"

"T!"

"Q!"

"Done!" Duo said, into the microphone.

"Alright, boys, now your body checks. Get those Gundams in action. One by one, we're opening the hatch once you're done." Zechs told them. Heero watched, as Duo pressed a few buttons. Suddenly, Deathscythe's eyes gleamed a brilliant green, and it stepped away from the wall, its foot landing on the floor with a boom. Apart from that, it was silent. No sounds of machinery, no whirrs, just silence. Duo did the usual checks, and Deathscythe moved all its limbs, but there wasn't much room for movement.

"Hey, Zechs." Came the slightly electronic voice of Duo. "Can you let me go out last?"

"Why?"

"I gotta show the new boy why Deathscythe has its name." came the reply, and Heero found himself smiling inside. Duo grinned up at the camera before clicking and winking at it. Heero jumped a little as Heavyarms eyes glowed that brilliant green and it thumped out of its dock. It moved around too, silently, if not for the sounds of metal against metal when this occurred.

"It feels good to be in here again." He heard Trowa say, and wished he was. Then, Sandrock, who was actually dainty compared to the first three, stepped out with a clang, and wriggled about.

"Whee!" came a sweet little cry, and Noin and Une gave each other the "oh, he's so sweet!" look, the men rolling their eyes, and Zechs smiling at Heero. Finally, Shenlong came out from the wall, and swung the stick around a little. To Heero's amazement, the other three all ducked and maneuvered themselves so that they dodged it.

"Woohoo! Come on reflexes!" yelled Duo.

"Don't think you're going to catch us out that easily." Trowa said, and Wufei chuckled a little.

"Right, opening hatch now. Exit in reverse numerical order." Zechs ordered, and nodded at Treize, who pulled a lever.

Heero watched in awe as the top of the hanger split in the middle, and a shaft of light struck the awaiting Gundams. They really were the most magnificent things he had ever seen in his life. Finally, with a clunk, the doors were finally open.

"Gundam 05, away!" Zechs cried. From the smallish blue pack on the back of Shenlong, there was a sudden oiling of the air beneath it, and the Gundam slowly rose from the floor, its head looking up, posing slightly.

"Oh, get out of it, Nataku, he's just the new boy." They heard Wufei mutter, and the man and women in the control room smiled a little, well, inside in Heero's case. "He's such a show-off, sorry Heero." He apologized, looking up at the camera. "Ok. Gundam 05 out. Waiting for back up."

"Gundam 04, away!" Zechs called. From the black pack on Sandrock's back came the oiling of air beneath it, the two long guns sticking out of the top, and it too, rose up. It struck an even more dramatic pose than Shenlong, and the control room was filled with Quatre's sweet laughter.

"Oh, Shenlong, you've got them into a competition. Heero, I wish I was you right now."

I don't, Heero said to himself, watching him wistfully as Sandrock disappeared through the hole. "Gundam 04 out."

"Gundam 03, away!" Zechs ordered. Heavy arms dramatically put its clenched fisted arms out to the sides as the oiliness came from behind it, and rose off the floor, head looking up. They heard Trowa laugh.

"Yes, you're doing absolutely great now just concentrate on the battle. Gundams." He said, looking up and rolling his eyes. Now, there was only Deathscythe left. "Gundam 03 out."

"Go for it, Maxwell!" Zechs said, and Duo grinned up at the camera. 

"Go for it, Deathscythe." He muttered. Deathscythe leapt up a few feet and landed in the middle, the staff in both hands. Duo pressed a button, and Heero's eyes widened. Now he understood. From the two slots on either side of the end, now came two huge, curved scythes of bright green light. "Laser technology, Heero, isn't it the best?!" Duo asked. Heero had to admit he was impressed. That sort of weapon looked to be deadly. Now, there was a loud blast as Deathscythe's huge silver backpack flared up, and he rose from the floor, being very careful with the scythe.

"Right boys, you know what's you're doing. No flying, keep on the ground and get moving! Treize wants these things destroyed by yesterday!" Zechs ordered.

"Right on!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Away we go!"

"Come on, men!"

Then, Heero heard the thumps of Gundam meeting floor, and then echoing booms as the four massive humanoid robots with their young pilots ran out of wherever they were and closer to the city. They were the most amazing things he had ever seen, and he was piloting one. Well, nearly, apart from the fact that he wasn't, and that made him angry. But he couldn't disobey orders, that was unheard of, so he stood, watching the TV screens that showed the cabins, listening to the conversations the pilots were having, and watching a few of the other screens that were coming from cameras planted on the tops of the skyscrapers in the city. Good luck, he thought, and meant it.


	6. Chapter 6

****

Chapter 6

"There they are." Wufei said, slightly electronically. Heero's brow creased even more. All four Gundams had got to the city and had been waiting ten minutes for whatever these things were.

"Sir," he asked. Zechs, the nearest, turned to him. "What are motion dolls?"

"Gundams with no pilots." He said, and turned back to the desk. Heero frowned more. That gave them an advantage of not worrying about a pilot, but the disadvantage of not being piloted. What were the odds? He didn't know, but, looking at one of the screens, he saw them. They were just as big, but not so ornate as these Gundams, and there were six.

"Um, guys? No offence, but you can't count!" Duo cried. The five in the control room said nothing. Heero was, he had to admit, worried. They were as big or bigger than the Gundams and as bulky, with weapons as fierce, and there was something about that sixth doll that worried him. It was different somehow.

"Something's not right with that doll." Treize said, looking at the screen that showed them.

"It has no arms." Heero muttered. They turned to him, and than back at the Gundam.

"What the hell is that thing?" an electronic Duo asked, and Heero couldn't help the knot of foreboding as they approached.

"I don't like this." Trowa said. "They're not acting like they should."

"Be prepared for anything." Wufei told them.

"No…holy shit!" Duo yelled, as the things suddenly seemed to disappear. Heero realised that they had sped off to surround the Gundams. "Go!" Duo yelled, and the battle started. The five in the control room could only see snap shots of it. They heard Trowa's yell of battle as he shot round after round of heavy ammunition into a doll with that massive machine gun of his before a plate over Heavyarm's left foot sprung open, and a large, long brown shape flew out with a burst of flame. The rocket flew into the doll's chest, exploding, and they watched as the half blown up robot fell to the floor with a smash.

They could see the long staff of Shenlong whipping to and fro, but the doll was matching it with its own staff. Their hearts flew to their mouths as they heard Wufei yell, the doll's staff slamming down on Shenlong's head. They heard a shrill cry, and then Sandrock appeared out of nowhere, landing on the dolls back. The great black hands of the robot held the doll's arms at bay while Shenlong plunged its staff deep into the monster's chest. There was a creaking sound, and Sandrock slammed its hand down on the head.

"Get down!" Quatre yelled, and Shenlong and Sandrock threw themselves to the floor, as the detonator set in the head of the doll erupted into a fireball. The doll staggered around without a head for a few moments before Shenlong slammed the staff into its chest once more, and it toppled over backwards into a building, knocking half of it down.

"Uh oh." Trowa muttered. There was a gasp from Quatre and a mutter from Wufei.

"GET UP OFF THE FLOOR WITH YOUR HANDS UP." Came a metallic voice, and Shenlong and Sandrock stood up.

"What's going on?" Zechs answered, urgently.

"The three remaining have got some sort of force field." Wufei answered. "They have us trapped."

"Where's Duo?" Trowa asked, suddenly. Heero's eyes flicked to Duo's screen. The boy was gritting his teeth, yelling every now and again.

"Maxwell! What are you doing? Where are you?" Zechs called.

"Fighting…freak...with no arms. Can't…really, talk right now." Duo said through gritted teeth and looking like he was struggling.

"Can we get a picture?" Treize asked.

"No." Noin answered. 

"He's on the harbour." Une said.

"We have no cameras there." Noin answered. They jumped as there was a yell from Duo.

"Shit! This guy's got more ammo than the whole of us combined! Back up would be nice!" Duo yelled.

"We can't get to you!" Trowa shouted to him, and Heero flinched as Duo's face grew scared.

"What? I'm gonna die, guys!" He yelled, and the camera flashed out for a second before coming back on.

"He is." Heero muttered, and found out, part of him horrified, that his mind was already made up. He turned, and started walking out of the control room.

"Yuy, where are you going?" Treize asked. Heero turned.

"Duo and the rest are in trouble, I have to help them." Heero replied, calmly.

"No. That is an order!" he yelled, as Heero's mouth opened, "You don't disobey orders, especially not directly!"

"Then court marshal me." Heero hissed, menacingly, and stepped into the lift, making it descend to the hanger floor. He could hear Treize's frantic yells but ignored them, sprinting over to the ladder up to Gundam. He sped up, quicker than any boy should be able to, and opened the hatch manually. He slipped into the cabin and closed and locked the hatch. He was in a large chair, with joysticks, buttons and levers all over the place. He pressed the massive green button in the centre and felt the shudder of the great monster waking up. Then, the visor opened, and he gasped. He was sticking out of the front, about ninety feet above the ground. He gulped, and put the headphones on, leaning back into the chair, his arms on the armrests, where two joysticks were.

"Yuy, what the hell are you doing?!" Zechs yelled down the phone.

"My job." Heero replied, stoically.

"Heero?" he heard Trowa ask. He heard muffled voice that sounded like they came from the control room, and his stomach jolted as the hanger doors started closing. They were locking him in.

"No!" he muttered, gritting his teeth, and pressed the joystick forward to take the massive robot out of the dock. There was only about a meter left, he would get trapped inside. Suddenly, the robot shot its left arm up, and rammed its shield in between in the doors, stopping them from opening. With a grating of metal being moved against its will, the doors were rammed back open again.

How am I doing? Came a voice. Heero frowned. Did he hear that, or not? The voice was deep, rasping, and metallic. I thought I'd better help out a little. Heero frowned even more. The voice was in his head.

Who is this? He thought, to himself and to the voice.

My name is Wing. Came the reply. Heero's mouth turned up in a half smile. I believe we are going to be working together for a while. 

Then let's go Heero said, and then pressed a joystick. Wing flew out of the hanger, with just enough time so that the hanger doors slammed, just as Wing's foot left them. He turned, and sped toward the city, flying only a few feet over the ground.

"Yuy, get back here!" he heard Treize yell, and ignored him.

"Heero?" came Duo's voice, strained, but there. "What are you doing?"

"Disobeying orders!" came Trowa's delighted cry, and Heero half smiled again. This was where he really belonged.

It took Wing and Heero a minute to get to the city where it had taken the others ten. He landed softly behind a building, and turned Wing's engine off. 

"I'm behind Fall Place, by the square." He said.

"We're in the square." Trowa replied. Suddenly, there was a yell from Duo.

"Help!" he yelled.

"Go!" Wufei ordered, and Heero wasted no time. Wing immediately fired up his engine, and they propelled themselves up over the building. The dolls saw them, but were too busy holding the three Gundams to do anything about it. Heero looked up, he could see Duo. Two laser arms had come out of the no-armed doll, and they were now burning into Deathscythe's metal ones.

"Heero!" Duo cried, making Heero's heart leap. Heero yelled in battle rage, and propelled himself into the doll. He was jolted about, but Wing snapped on his seat belts and he was safe. Wing's shield now rested on the chest of the doll. "Don't let him touch you!" Duo yelled, and Heero didn't need to be told twice. His lightning mind worked out what to do.

Great, now just tell me how to do it. Wing said, and Heero made a mental note to marvel at how the thing read his thoughts later. He had to get it just right. 

The others watched s Heero raised Wing's arm, and chopped it down.

"Jesus!" Trowa breathed, as Heero got it accurate to a millimetre, which was about how much he had to miss. The very end of the shoulder came flying off, and the arm faded. He did exactly the same with the other arm, getting cheers from the others. But then, the doll seemed to wake up. It threw Wing off, making Heero cry out as he landed. In the split second it took to get his bearings, Wing had flipped back up again, and the two robots faced off.

"Oh shit!" Duo cried, as two metallic arms from inside the beast came out. "He has extras."

"Oh well." Heero muttered, and then he and Wing surged forward. It was a breathtaking hand-to-hand fight. Wing himself had no idea what to do at this, but Heero did, and moved him lightning fast, arrow accurate and as deadly as only he could be. The beast found itself losing a battle. Then, at exactly the right time, Heero gave the order to Wing, and his right arm shot up, the beam gun letting out a ray of brilliant red light, that hit the beast in its head.

It staggered about, dangerously close to the injured Deathscythe. All the pilots willed the beast to move away, but it didn't. As it fell, creaking into the sea, its hand grabbed the scythe that the robot held. It was too quick for Duo, and he yelled as Deathscythe toppled down with the beast.

"Heero!" he yelled, before the line went dead.

"Duo! Duo!" Heero yelled, but there was no reply.

"Oh god!" Quatre breathed, his voice cracking.

"What? What happened?" Zechs asked, urgently. There was a long silence.

"Gundam 02 is gone, sir." Trowa muttered, officially, his voice blank.

"What do you mean, gone?" Zechs yelled.

"He fell off the harbour wall, sir." Wufei said.

"How deep is it?" Quatre asked.

"Too deep. It's the one place on the coast that the water goes for three hundred feet down." Zechs said, his voice desolate. "He's gone."

"Isn't there some way..?" Quatre began.

"No." Zechs answered. "You know that we haven't experimented with Gundams underwater yet. If they're running, they could easily blow up, killing you. We can't afford to take that risk. He's gone." There was silence.

"Will he be dead?" Quatre asked.

"No." Zechs replied. "He'll only die when he runs out of oxygen."

"When will that be?"

"…Seven hours."

There was even longer, even more awful silence. None of them wanted to think about what it must be like down there, knowing you were going to die for seven hours before suffocating to death at the bottom of the sea. Heero couldn't move. It was his fault Duo was going to die, this was what happens when you disobeyed orders. Because of him, Duo was going to die a horrible death. 

No, Heero. He heard Wing say. He would have died anyway. 

But quicker. Heero replied. He wouldn't have to suffer. 

Don't beat yourself up. Wing told him, sternly, Just take it out on those goons who are holding the others. 

I can't. Heero said.

Why? 

What if I kill another one? 

Where's my promised perfect soldier? Wing asked, sounding angry now, Are you going to let one death stop you from helping your friends, the world, the solar system? If you are, then I no longer want you piloting me. 

Heero looked up at the other three, standing there.

"You're right." He said, and the others didn't need to ask who he was talking to. His eye blazed, his body tensed.

Thank you. He added, calmly, and quietly, before sending Wing surging forward.

One of the dolls registered his coming; the others didn't have the time. On Heero's command, Wing's shoulder pads folded back, revealing two huge guns. One arm held the shield up in front of him, and the other wielded the massive ray gun, which had now been swapped for a sharp sword. Heero's face contorted with emotion, the two flung themselves at the nearest doll. It was crushed, its head snapped off and bullets fired into its chest, causing a large explosion, before it knew what was happening. The chain was broken, and the others were free, but, as an unspoken decision, they all hastily retreated, waiting for Heero to kill the rest. It was a magnificent sight to see. Now they knew why Wing had been chosen for the leader, and why Heero had been chosen for Wing. They were the perfect partners, Wing doing all he could to the slightest of Heero's thoughts and movements. Together, they totally demolished the two remaining dolls, piling them up on top of each other before turning to the other three.

They could all just about see each other, four small boys in the large humanoid robots. They walked in closer, into a circle, and saw each other properly.

"You did the right thing, Heero." Trowa said, after a while, and Heero looked up at him. The pain in his stomach was almost unbearable, Wing was right. Where was the perfect soldier, why did he suddenly freak after someone was killed in the battle?

Because you feel responsible. Wing told him.

That doesn't make a difference. Heero answered him.

Yes it does. Came a new voice. It was still metallic, but even deep and more full throated than Wing. The boys looked around and saw that the Gundams were all touching each other's arms.What's going on? Heero heard Quatre ask.

We are joined. Wing answered. When we are joined, our minds and yours can be heard over the whole system. 

Can the control room hear us? Trowa asked.

No. Wing replied.

Good. Heero? Trowa asked.

Yes? 

Ignore Treize, ok? Trowa told him. All four Gundams and three other pilots felt Heero's jolt of foreboding as it settled in his stomach. He didn't want to see him.

Take heed to him, Pilot 01 A light, rasping voice said.

Which one are you? Quatre asked.

Well, its not Heavyarms, he told Heero it made no difference, his voice doesn't sound like that. Trowa said.

It's Nataku. Wufei said. There was another silence.

I think we should get this over and done with. Came a different voice that had to be Sandrock's. It was even lighter than Shenlong's voice, and hoarser.

Let's move. Heero said, and the Gundams let go of each other, all feeling the lines broken. They stamped through the city, Wing leading, followed by Trowa, Quatre and the Wufei behind him. When they had got out of it, Trowa cam up beside Wing, and the other stayed behind them. Heero didn't want to see Treize, and found himself wanting to stay with Wing.

I wish I could, Heero. Wing said, reading his mind, Out of all the things I want, I want to stay with you, but I cannot. You must do this on your own. 

I'm good at that. Heero said, and they trudged off back to the hanger. They came across the open doors, and gently lowered themselves in, neither the Gundams or the pilots letting themselves look at the awful space under the number 2 sign. 

Goodbye and good luck. Wing said, and then Heero turned him off, and all was silent for a minute. Dreading what it was going to bring, he hauled himself up and out of the cabin, and lowered himself down the ladder. The other three joined him, Trowa staying near him, but Heero didn't notice. They all got into the lift up to the control room, and the doors opened on the four in there. Zechs was sitting, leaning on the side, his head in his hands. Treize was standing, looking at the Gundams, a far away expression on his face. The girls had pulled their chairs together, and Noin's eyes were slightly pink, like she had been crying. A single tear dropped down Une's face, but her expression was as frosty as ever. Heero wanted to die.

"Noin, give us Heavyarm's account of the battle." Treize said, after they had come in and the doors had closed behind them. "I take it you got the best view." He said to Trowa, who nodded. Heero made himself look at the screen showing him fighting the beast, but all he could hear was Duo's terrified scream as he fell over the harbour, and his own name being yelled just before the line went dead. As the relived Wing destroying the rest of the dolls, there were a few impressed gasps from the women, but Treize and Zechs stayed vigilantly silent. Finally, they got to the part where the Gundams had joined, and found that Heavyarms had turned the camera off, as had the others if they had bothered to look.

There was a deathly silence before Treize spoke. Very, very slowly, he turned to Heero, and his sky blue eyes were cold and angry.

"You deliberately and directly disobeyed my orders, Yuy." He said, his voice low and full of contempt.

"Yes, sir." Heero replied.

"You took a Gundam out into a battle you had no understanding, training or ability for. You destroyed a multi-million pound piece of equipment with your reckless behaviour!" he said, his voice rising a little. "And, even worse." He added, his voice once again, low, "You have killed a fellow member of the organisation."

"I…" Heero started, but couldn't finish.

"You have something to say to redeem yourself, Yuy?" Treize asked.

"No, sir." Heero replied, looking at the floor.

"Duo has been with us for quite some time now, Yuy. I do not think I need to punish you for your behaviour, as the blood of your friend I'm sure will prove quite enough as it is on your hands alone. Even so, if anything happens like this ever again you will be court marshalled without trail, do you understand me? Let us just hope that Duo was killed in the impact, and so will not be suffering for the six and a half hours he has left before he dies. Dismissed."

Heero immediately turned and went down the lift. He heard Trowa bang on the door and calling him as he went down, but ignored him. As he walked over the hanger he heard the lift going back up again. He was half way along the balcony in the large room when Trowa caught up with him.

"Heero..." he said, putting hand on Heero's shoulder. Heero shrugged it off roughly.

"Get away from me." He mumbled, menacingly, and walked off, leaving Trowa to stand, his hand out to him on the balcony. He didn't care. He had to sort himself out before he did any more damage.


	7. Chapter 7

****

Chapter 7

Duo shivered, and his eyes opened. He closed them, and opened them again. There was only just a difference. Everything was nearly black and it was freezing. He shivered, he had left his jacket in the hanger for more room, and all he had was his thin, short sleeved shirt. 

"D?" he asked, quietly, his voice hoarse and sounding terribly lonely.

Duo. Came the reply. It was rasping and harsh, but weak.

"D, what's going on? All I can remember is falling off the harbour, falling through all this and then I think I blacked out."

You were knocked unconscious by the impact of me and the sea floor. Deathscythe replied.

"What? We're all the way at the bottom?" Duo asked, his stomach flipping.

At exactly three hundred and forty feet. Came the grim reply. Duo's eyes widened his face the picture of horror.

"They can't get to us, can they?" he asked him, knowing the answer.

Not even if they tried. Deathscythe told him.

"Oh god." Duo cracked. "I'm gonna die down here."

In exactly six hours and eleven minutes, my oxygen supply will run out and…

"I don't need to know!" Duo interrupted. "Can't you get outta here on your own?"

I was damaged in the fall…" there was a creak, "…I am very weak…I'm not sure how long I can go before I shut down. 

"Don't shut down on me, man!" Duo cried, "I don't want to be alone down here…D?" There was no reply, and Duo knew that he had gone, he could feel it. He was all on his own down here, waiting for the air to run out and then he would suffocate. The wail of utter panic set in his stomach and threatened to come out. He swallowed hard to push it down. He wouldn't go crazy, he wouldn't. Wasn't there anything he could do? He knew that there wasn't, they had even stopped there being anything in the cabin for him to kill himself quickly with. He was stuck. He was a dead man, and the worst thing was, he had to wait for it.

**************

"I really don't think you needed to be quite so harsh." Noin said, quietly, looking over the rim of her coffee cup at Treize. He glared at her.

"If he hadn't gone waltzing in there, Duo wouldn't be stuck at the bottom of the sea, waiting for a grim death."

"I thought you said…"

"Oh, grow up, Noin! Those things are built like skyscrapers. He might have been knocked unconscious for a while, but he'll be alive."

"So, that was an act of kindness, telling Heero that, was it?" Zechs asked, bitterly.

"Not with the words after it." Une said.

"Listen. If he hadn't disobeyed me, Duo would have got out, he wouldn't be knowing he was going to die..."

"A fact which will be going around Heero's head already, let alone now that you've drilled it into him with a stake!" Zechs cried, a rare time where he lost his temper. "You know our suspicions about the boy, and you know, you saw how Duo was affecting him, the other pilots noticed it, too. Trowa's told me he was the only one who got to him and after that argument they had, they must have had a pretty close call to make up. Think about what'll be going through his head right now."

"He's been recommended as the perfect soldier, he probably won't even feel it."

"Oh, now who's being naïve?" Noin asked. "Maybe you just haven't looked hard enough, but there is something seriously wrong with that kid! You saw the footage of when he was sleeping! Not even Duo has dreams that bad!"

"Had dreams that bad" Une said, quietly, and they fell silent. "If you're looking for my thoughts on the matter, no matter how much that "perfect soldier" suffers, it won't even compare to what Duo's going through, and so I say bring on the guilt. He deserves it."

"It was in the heat of battle," Zechs argued, "He couldn't help the doll going where it did."

"He could have pushed it the other way, he's shown us he's good enough." Treize said, and none of them could find anything to say to that.

**************

Duo shivered, it was freezing in here. He wrapped his arms tighter around his legs, which were curled up under him. He felt dry, parched, and a cracked laugh came out of him. Parched for water, at the bottom of the sea. He shivered again, and watched as a long eel slipped past the view of the water. He looked at his watch. After Deathscythe's warning, he had set it to count down. Not the best thing to do, he thought, but he couldn't think of anything else to do. It said 5: 45. Five hours and forty-five to live set on a little wristwatch. He sighed. He would have wanted his death to be glorious, noble. Now, he was waiting for it, alone and in darkness at the bottom of sea, watching the remainder of his life tick away on a digital watch, so that he didn't even have the ticking. He didn't even have a robot to keep him company.

**************

"I'm worried about him." Quatre said, after a silence. They were sitting on Trowa's deep green sofas and he was currently snuggled up to Trowa's side, his legs underneath him and Trowa's arm clutching his shoulders.

"Who?" Trowa asked.

"There's not much point worrying about Duo." Wufei said, darkly, and Quatre clutched Trowa tighter, causing the taller boy lay his head on the blonde boy's own.

"Was Treize lying?" Quatre asked, looking up at Trowa. "Do you think Duo could have been killed in the impa…" he trailed off as Trowa shook his head sadly.

"I've survived a lot worse than that without even a scratch in Heavyarms." Trowa said. There was a horrified and stunned silence.

"Going back to what I said, I'm worried about Heero." Quatre said.

"Why?" Wufei asked, a little bitterly. To his surprise, he found Trowa glaring and turning on him.

"You blame him, don't you?!" he asked, his green eyes blazing. "You blame Heero for this?!"

"Well he was the one who made the beast…"

"Fall on him? He had no idea what it was going to do? What could he have done? Think of yourself in that position, what would you have done?!" Trowa yelled.

"Trowa-chan, be still." Quatre whispered, putting a pale hand on Trowa's face. Trowa closed his eyes, covering Quatre's hand with his own.

"I'm sorry, Quatre." He breathed, sighing deeply. "I just…what with Duo gone, and Heero…this must be killing him. Last night…he must have done something pretty monumental by his standards for Duo to forgive him for saying what he did. I don't think any of us can have any idea what this is doing to him."

"Even if he's denying it." Wufei said, and Trowa nodded.

"Why would he deny it?" Quatre asked.

"He was trained to have no emotions, to the perfect soldier, Zechs said." Trowa told him, looking down at the blue eyed boy. "He's going to feeling all this emotion and knowing that he shouldn't be because he was taught that it was wrong."

Quatre's eyes widened in understanding and a tear trickled from his eye. Trowa pulled his head into his chest protectively and kissed the top of Quatre's head as the boy sobbed silently into his chest, gripping him tightly. Trowa looked up at Wufei, who gave him a sad and sympathetic look.

"This is bad." He said, finally.

"This is as bad as it could get." Trowa agreed.

"How come the Gundams have never done that before?" Wufei asked.

"They had no leader. They needed Wing and Heero to complete the circle, I guess." Trowa answered. "It was weird, I could feel everything…"

"What do you mean?"

"Everything Heero and Quatre was. I could feel Quatre more, I'm guessing because Heavyarms is closer to him than Wing."

"What, in numerical order?"

"Yeah."

"Well?"

"What?"

"What was he feeling?"

"Confused, guilty, angry at himself, even more confused, frustrated, even more guilty. It was a little scary. He puts on such a good show of not caring, not feeling, when really, all he's been trained to do is push them down so he can't feel them."

"But he can now."

"I think Duo's unlocked him in some way, which is why he's so confused."

"And now that Duo's gone…"

"He has no one to help him." Trowa said. Wufei shook his head, his hair, now out, reaching his shoulders and framing his face.

"So, what's he doing? Re-teaching himself?"

"Trying, I suppose."

"Well, good luck to him. I think he's going to need it." Wufei said, and he and Trowa nodded, Trowa laying his head on Quatre's and clutching him even more tightly as the Sandrock pilot continued to weep into him.

**************

Three and a half hours. That was all he had left. Duo's jaw and body ached from sitting in the same position and shivering for so long. His skin felt like stone gone wrong. He was freezing, and slightly sweating with foreboding and fear. He didn't want to die; he had too many things to do yet. He shook his head, knowing that this path would lead to insanity. If he wasn't lightly insane already. He tried to think of something else that he could think about for long enough to pass some of the time that seemed to be three times as slow down here as it was on the surface. He smiled, cracking his dry lips as he thought of the perfect subject. Heero.

His stomach flipped as he cast his mind back to sort through the battle, and he gasped, a sore crack coming from his throat as he realised what Heero had done. He had gone against orders. Treize had ordered him to not go, and he had come anyway. What had made him do that? To go against everything he had ever been taught? To do what he had ripped into Duo for doing? A warmth spread in his stomach and chilled again as he thought about whether it was because he was in trouble, and then decided against it, because the others were in trouble first, and he hadn't checked on him or anything. Still, it made him feel kinda good, that maybe Heero had learnt some good habits from him before…

He hit himself in the forehead mentally, he had thought about it again. He wished Heero was here now. He wanted to see his eyes again, touch him again, smell him again. If he was perfectly honest with himself, (and he decided this was a good idea as he had nothing to hide from anyone anymore) he knew that what he wanted was for the back door to the cabin, that was inaccessible from anywhere but the engine as well as now being securely locked, to open and for Heero to come through it and hold him, tell him he was going to be okay and take him back, not letting go. He wanted it so much he felt a crack of a sob rake through his body and closed his eyes, the thought of the stern determination of Heero to stop himself panicking. He held on to that thought, the thought of Heero telling him not to be so stupid and to pull himself together to keep him going. Heero wouldn't do this, Heero would just take it, close his eyes, try to sleep, and take it. Well, Duo couldn't sleep, he had been trying for the last…three hours and forty-four and a half minutes to go to sleep, but he closed his eyes and kept Heero's face in his head. He clung to it desperately, the only thing he could do without reminding himself of his impending doom and it kept him sane.

**************

There was a knock on the door. Trowa looked up at Wufei, and asked him with his eyes to get it; Quatre was asleep in his arms. Wufei smiled at the boy and stood up. Trowa gently him, knowing he should wake up anyway. Quatre yawned, incredibly sweetly, and Trowa involuntarily placed a swift kiss on his lips. He got a smile in return and then the boy stretched.

"Heero?"

Trowa sat up, turning round, as did Quatre. Wufei had opened the door, and Heero was standing in the doorway. His face was stone and he was staring at Wufei. "Come in?"

"No." Heero said. Trowa got up and went over to the door, Quatre close behind him.

"Heero?" he asked, suspiciously. There was a slight gleam in Heero's eye that shouldn't be there. "Why did you come here?"

"To ask you if you're coming with me." Heero said.

"Where?" Wufei asked.

"To get Duo."

Trowa sighed sadly, pitying eyes resting on Heero's.

"Heero…it's impossible, there's no way we can get to him."

"I was made to be the perfect soldier!" Heero cried suddenly, making them jump. Lowering his voice, he added. "I was trained to do the impossible."

Trowa, despite himself, found a smile creeping up on his lips, and saw similar smiles on Wufei and Quatre's faces.

"Heero, you know Treize had forbidden it. You could be executed for this." He said.

"I know, I don't care." Heero said, a determined look on his face. "I'm not leaving Duo there to die, but we don't have much time. I don't think I can do it with just Wing, but I'll try. I will do it without you if you won't come with me, but you're going to have to decide now. Are you with me?"

The three were a little surprised. Gone was the stoic, private soldier that just followed orders. In place was a driven, determined leader who made his own decisions and ordered others. Trowa found himself being proud just to serve him. He shoved his fist out.

"Just say the word, captain and I'll do it." He said. 

"Count me in." Quatre said, adding his fist.

"Wherever you go, I will be with you." Wufei said, and put his fist on Trowa and Quatre's. There was a gleam in Heero's eyes, and they stared as his mouth turned up in that half smile of his as he covered the pile of fists with his hand.

"Let's do this." He said. They all yelled out in unison as they threw their hands up in the air, and then Quatre grabbed their jackets and they left the flat, walking, Heero leading, followed by the others in a group behind him, down the plain corridor to the lift.

They got in, the three putting their jackets on.

"So, do you have a plan?" Trowa asked as they went down.

"Well, I've looked at the blue prints of Deathscythe on the computer…"

"That's classified information, how did you get to it?" Quatre asked, astonished. Heero gave him a proud little gleam in his eye.

"I'm a celebrated hacker." He said, a slightly mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"You've changed such a lot since you came here a few days ago, you know that?" Trowa asked.

"Thank Duo for that when you see him next." Heero said, a determined look now on his face. "Anyway," he carried on in a professional kind of voice as they walked into the large room that lead to the hanger, "It shows that there may by room for someone to get through the engine and into the maintenance chamber the wrong way. From there I can force my way to Duo and get him out. Now, we can't leave Deathscythe there, and it will almost probably be dysfunctional and out cold…"

"How do you know that?" Wufei asked as they reached the hanger.

"Because if he was fully functional he would probably be able to get out of it himself." Heero replied. "So, I will need you lot to get Deathscythe out of there once I'm out with Duo."

"How?"

"You'll carry him."

"What?!" Trowa asked. They shared looks. "I didn't quite realise that this was going to be a potential suicide mission."

"Well, it is." Heero replied, his voice louder as they all climbed up the ladders to the Gundams. There was silence as they all got in and put the headphones on.

"Turn them on." Heero said, and pressed the button. Before Wing could speak, he went forward, as the others did, and they got into the circle.

What's going on? Sandrock asked.

Rescue mission. Heero answered. Let's get out first. Wing? 

Leave it to me. Wing said, and looked up. Heavyarms. He and Heavyarms got out their swords and jammed them into the hanger doors. With a scraping of metal against metal, they held them open for Shenlong and Sandrock. Wing held it open for Heavyarms to get out and then propelled himself out, getting out just in time to let the doors slam. 

" They know where we are now." Trowa said, "No going back."

"Good." Wufei replied.

"Can we be joined while we move?" Heero asked.

Yes. Wing replied, and got them all together.

Let's fly. Heero said, We only have an hour and a half left. 

They got going, Wing leading them as he was the fastest, and Heero explained his plan to the others.

Right. We will all go down and Wing will swim up to Deathscythe. We all have breathing equipment in the maintenance room so I'll use that. The pressure will be hard, but I'll just have to deal with that. Wing, you'll have to be upside down so water doesn't get into the cabin. The rest of you will be around me. You can't move Deathscythe with me in there because it'll automatically close the engines hatch. Movement without the Gundam's permission does that, so you'll trap us in there. So, as soon as you see me go back to Wing, go to Deathscythe. The three of you combined just be able to lift him out, but be careful. Using your engines to propel you in the water is dangerous when you're coming back out again. Water is at a higher density than air so you'll propel yourselves out into space if you're not careful. I know Zechs said we haven't tried the Gundams out underwater yet, but from what I've seen they shouldn't have any problem at all.

Wow. Wufei said, after a silence.

Yeah, seeing why you're the leader, boy. Heavyarms motioned.

I…

He's not a boy. Wing interrupted, defensively, and Heero smiled a little.

Well, that told you Heavyarms, huh? Trowa said, laughing a little through the microphone.

Oh! Quatre said.

What? Trowa asked.

It's weird hearing a real voice. Quatre said, and they chuckled a little bit, Heero simply concentrating. He hadn't got much time, and if he didn't save Duo he didn't know what he'd do. They'd be at the city in about two minutes he guessed, and he didn't know how long it would take him to get through the engine. He narrowed his eyes. He had no choice but to save him, and was afraid to ask himself why.


	8. Chapter 8

****

Chapter 8

"Heero." It was Trowa.

"What?"

"They've clocked in."

"Who..?"

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Ah."

Wing, can we? 

Yes. 

So that they can hear? 

Yes Wing replied, and did it.

"Right, we can't hear them, but they can hear us." Heero said, "Problem solved."

"Oh god, Treize is going to kill us." Quatre moaned.

"Let him." Heero said simply. The others sighed. He was in deep. "We're here." Heero said. They had reached the city. "You sure you're all in this? It could be dangerous."

"Shut up Heero and get going, we're not going anywhere apart from where you tell us." Trowa said. Heero felt the warmth flowing through him and let it fuel him.

"Right, when we get over this thing, lower yourself gently down and get used to water before you start going down." Heero said.

Wing, I want the pressure changed to what it will be when we go down there and go down slow enough so I can cope. When I'm gone and Duo and I are back in…

I'll fix it so we do the same going up. 

Great. 

"Let's do this, guys." He said. They all gritted their teeth as they all rose up off the floor again, and the four in the control room held their breaths.

**************

Duo's ears popped for the umpteenth time. Deathscythe's pressure system had gently failed, and he was now under the full pressure of three hundred and thirty feet. He kept blinking, kept Heero in his mind to keep him from blacking out but the stars kept creeping up behind his eyelids. The cold kept him awake a little bit, but it wasn't enough. He opened his eyes again, closed them…and then jolted them open. He scrunched up his eyes to see better. He could have sworn that…it was! A beam of light came down from somewhere, it swept over him and swept back. He couldn't move he was so stiff but he craned forward.

His heart nearly stopped when he saw the toe of a Gundam. As more and more of the Gundam came into view, his breathing got faster and faster. He knew who this was. The Gundam got closer and closer, and then he saw the bottom of the green, see-through sphere that heralded the cabin. Slowly, slowly, the cabin floated into view, and he saw what, in his eyes, was the equivalent of an angel. Heero was in the cabin. He shielded his eyes from the glare of Wing's light, and then it went. He looked up and saw the cabin window, now touching his own, and Heero, actually Heero, leaning over the dashboard.

Duo waved weakly. Heero's hand pressed against the glass of his cabin window, and his eyes desperately searched Duo for injury. Duo almost cried with relief. Heero was here; he had come to save him. After Heero's eyes had sighed with relief, Wing started backing up a bit, letting Duo see the other three floating above him. Duo nearly laughed out loud in relief, they were here, and they were attempting the impossible. Heero had come for him, he was safe. His sensible side told him that it was impossible for them to get him out but Heero filled his mind and his vision. He saw Heero's lips move and lip-read him. He said, "I'm coming". Simple words, but they were like silent music to Duo's ears and he nodded, his head hurting again.

He saw Heero talk into his microphone and then move away, giving Duo one last anxious look before disappearing out. Heavyarms replaced him, Trowa waving at Duo before settling, to watch him, he guessed. The stars fought to claim him again, and he leant back in his chair, his eyes shut, fighting them. They wouldn't take him until he was in Heero's arms, they wouldn't.

**************

Heero shook his head. He was feeling a little queasy, but seeing Duo had stirred him up to no end. He couldn't fail now. He couldn't black out, not now he had seen Duo alive. Nearly dead, but hanging on. He couldn't disappoint him now, the look in Duo's eyes when he had seen him felt like warm liquid to Heero, and, Wing positioned upside down, fastened the last catch on his breathing equipment.

"Heero, Heero?" came the communications from the headphones, he picked them up.

"What?"

"Hurry it up, he's losing consciousness." Trowa said, "A little longer and he'll black out. If he goes now, he won't wake up."

"Right. How long have I got?" Heero asked.

"An hour. Enough?"

"Hope so. Wish me luck. Over and out."

He put them down, and pushed down the face.

Good luck, Heero. Wing told him.

Thanks. Heero said, and then opened the hatch. He had stripped down to the trousers and boots, taking the shirt and jacket off for room. He knew it was going to be a tight fit, and anyway, Duo was going to be wet and freezing, he would need something dry to put around his shoulders. Staring down at the dark blue water, he tucked his elbows in. Light me, Wing. He reminded the humanoid and then jumped in.

The coldness of the water took his breath away and he spent a few minutes getting used to it. The goggles framed his vision. Finally, he started swimming. It was eerie. Five massive beings were in the water and he suddenly felt very small. He looked around as he swam toward Deathscythe's backpack. Wing was hanging, upside down, looking precarious. Deathscythe was lying back against the cliff wall, looking scarily dead. Heavyarms was right in front of it, almost touching, and he could see Trowa. Sandrock and Shenlong were hovering a little behind and above him. There were about six strong spotlights from each Gundam, and they were all on Deathscythe. One, from Wing, was aiming at the backpack, and Heero swam along the wide beam of light as fast as he could.

He felt totally dwarfed. The mere eyes of these massive things were nearly as big as him. His stomach protested as the eeriness settled in, but he ignored. Wing followed him so he in the middle of the spotlight, and he swam down to the bottom of the backpack. He knew this was dangerous. Gundams were unpredictable things. If Deathscythe woke, he would be toast, literally, the amazing power of Deathscythe's thrusters could come shooting down on him any second while he was in there.

He shoved this thought to the back of his head as he swam up into the engine. The water stopped, and he surfaced. He took the breathing equipment off and laid it on a ledge, hauling himself up on the ledge after them. He panted a bit, but calmed himself down. Deathscythe didn't have the oxygen to spare. He looked at his watch. He had fifty minutes to get through. If he got lost in here he would be lost forever, and Duo would die. No, he couldn't let that happen, and gritted his teeth in grim determination as he stood up carefully. He thought for a second. He had entered the left entrance, or exit as it should be. That meant he had to go up and slightly to the right, to end up in the middle.

He looked up. The barrel of the engine stretched up and up into blackness. Heero turned on the torch and shone it up. It didn't reach the end, and he tried to push the thought of looking up to see a red fire ball hurtling towards him at the speed of sound out of his head. The edges seemed un-climbable, and there was a little hole to the fuel tank. He would have to go that way to get to the middle. Concentrating his mind on keeping his bearings and Duo, he crawled through the tiny space.

He nearly choked; it smelt so strong of petrol. Nearly retching, he grimly thought of the boy he was trying to save and tried standing. He fiercely pushed down the panic when he realised he couldn't and, holding the torch in his teeth, he crawled along, flicking his eyes up to see if he could stand yet. Finally, there was a hole in the ceiling, tinier than the one he was in already. He stooped, lying on his back, and shone the torch upward. It was stifling in here. The hole was only about two feet across, and there were tiny metal rungs going up and up from when it had been built. Gritting his teeth and then putting the torch back in them, he knelt, sticking his head into the tiny, dark, almost suffocatingly hot space. With a jolt of panic, he shot his back out again and, seeing how confined the space was, started panicking. With the strength of a Gundam, he closed his eyes and his mind calmed itself. He couldn't do this, he couldn't…no, he could, it was for Duo. He opened his eyes, and his eye blazed in the torchlight. He would do anything for him right now. Gritting his teeth on the torch, he put his head in, the panic now confined to a strong prickling in his stomach, stopped from reaching his brain, and started to climb.

It was so dark, so stuffy he thought he really would die, but closed his eyes, and soon got his bearings enough to know the distance between the rungs and so did it blind, the only way he would do it without panicking. Now, after going for five minutes, he knew that to panic now would mean death. He had nowhere to go. He flipped his mind back to Duo as the panic fought his iron grip. He would not let this get to him. He pictured Duo when he found him. He would relax only when Duo was in his arms in Wing's cabin. 

After ten minutes, his too accurate body clock told him, his heightened senses told him it had spaced out a bit. Fighting his ever-growing panic, he opened his eyes. He was blinded at first by the torch, but then, his eyes got used to it, and saw that there was a bend in the tunnel, and that it now went out to the side. Frowning to get his bearings, he knew that it went to Deathscythe's back, and that was good. On hands and knees, sweating from every pore, he crawled forward. Soon, the floor became grating, and he nearly dropped the torch. He looked up, and saw that the far ceiling was about three feet above him. Thankfully, he kneeled up, and once again closed his eyes to fight the panic. He was at the very top of the barrel. Three feet above him were the thrusters of Deathscythe, his death would at least be quick. His once again too-good bearings told him that this was the left barrel, the one had tried to climb before. He was just at the top now.

Opening his eyes again, he glanced at his watch. Half an hour until the oxygen ran out. He had to work fast. A sickening feeling in his stomach, he turned the torch downward and looked down. He couldn't see anything until, in the wall that separated the two barrels, he saw the square of an opening. That must go into the tunnel that leads to the maintenance room, he thought, and he knew what he had to do. The grating was in the middle, so he now sat, his legs over that side, breathing hard. When he was ready, he put the torch deep in his back pocket, zipping it right up. He was now in totally darkness.

He closed his eyes, and his bearings worked their fantastically accurate ways. It was about half way down, so it would take him roughly this long to fall there. He didn't trust them, though, so knew he had to be careful. He looked at the watch. Twenty-five minutes, it was now or never. He thought of Duo as hard as he could, and pushed off the grating. He raised his hands above his head and tried gripping the wall. It didn't work, he knew it wouldn't, but he didn't want to slow down. His stomach seemed to be in his mouth and his eyes were tightly clenched, his breath held. The millisecond his bearings said "now", he felt the edge scrape his stomach hard, and then his hands felt air and then gripped the edge. He let the breath go with a loud grunt as the jolt hit his strong bones. For a minute he just hung there, his stomach stinging, and his fingers straining. Then, with a grunt off effort, he started pulling upwards.

**************

It had been too long. Duo looked at his watch. He had twenty-five minutes, and Trowa looked worried. Where was he? Duo felt the stars coming back, and re-programmed his brain to concentrate on stopping them and Heero. It took longer, more effort and caused more pain to stop them this time, but he knew he wouldn't wake up if he went now. Finally, they subsided a little, and he saw Trowa looking worriedly at him. Duo couldn't even grin to show him he was ok. This was mainly because he wasn't. He wanted to throw up, his head hurt, his whole body ached. He was tense in anticipation and his stomach was sick of it, his body hurt from being so tense, and it was so cold. He was tired to even shiver now though.

He was going, he knew it, he could find himself fading. Blackness started to go around his eyes. There wasn't enough oxygen in his lungs, but it took too much effort to breathe. He kept his eyes open, vigilantly. Tears filled his eyes, and a sob cracked through his body taking too much effort. He was scared, he was dying, he knew it, he was so scared, he didn't want to die. He had to see Heero; Heero was going to save him.

"Heero!" he croaked in a desperate sob., not hearing the gunshot.

"Duo!" came a voice. Duo frowned a little. The blackness faded a bit and he could see again. He saw him, Heero suddenly appeared in front of him, real, worried, but here. "Duo, I'm here." He said, but Duo wasn't concentrating. It took too much effort to breathe; he couldn't get any air into his lungs. He started panicking, his hands grabbing for something. Something found him first. He felt strong hands pull him forwards, and then his mouth was covered by something. Something warm, soft, moist, and full of…air. Someone was giving him air; he didn't need to do it himself. His stomach jolted as he realised what was happening. Heero was kissing him.

That thought woke him up a bit, and he suddenly needed more air than Heero could give him, and had the strength to do it. He, however reluctantly, pushed Heero away, and took a few massive gulps of air. As his sight returned, he almost cried out as Heero's hand covered his mouth, stopping him from gulping in the air. He looked up, slightly panicked into Heero's gorgeous eyes that were full of sorrow.

"I'm sorry, Duo." He whispered, "We don't have the oxygen."

Duo simply shook his head. He couldn't move, he knew that. Heero tried to get him up, but he couldn't, he didn't have the energy. Another frustrated sob came from his mouth. "Shush." Heero whispered, pushing his shoulders down. "It's alright."

Suddenly, Duo knew it wasn't. He grabbed Heero's arms, and the last thing he saw before he blacked out was Heero's face, looking deep into his own eyes.

**************

Duo collapsed in his arms. Heero felt the sudden disappearance of his stomach, but then Duo's chest went up and down. He was alive, but needed more oxygen than Heero or Deathscythe could give him. Determined of face, Heero lifted Duo into his arms with a grunt. He went out of the maintenance room, and his stomach jolted again as he remembered how they had to get out. It wasn't so bad this time, though. Duo's weight in his arms supported him, and his lingering touch on Heero's lips reminded him of why he had to get out now. He was not giving up on Duo now, not after all this. He walked through the room and the passage. He looked at the little hole, dreading it, but having no choice. He laid Duo out, and lowered himself through it, so he was resting on his arms.

Then, trusting his artificial strength that he was born with, he slowly slid Duo's unconscious body out beside him, so he had one hand round his waist. He looked at Duo's face in the dark. This could either save them or kill them both. Placing a firm kiss on Duo's forehead, he let go, flinging Duo's limp body up as he slid down. He got the torch and shone it down. He was fast approaching the end, and pushed the torch away so it fell with him, he looked up, and saw Duo's body above his. He got himself directly under him, and then waited. 

His lightning fast reactions made him kick out when only half his body had fallen into the water. His eyes were open as he entered the water, stinging, but he didn't care. He was on his way up before Duo's body slammed into the water beside him creating a surge of bubbles. He grabbed him as he sped past him, and then shot them both up to the air. As his head broke water, he shook his head and held Duo up, grabbing the ledge. He only hoped the torch had heralded a signal that Wing would take. He knew he couldn't swim that length without air, and he was giving Duo all of it. He put the goggles on himself and then attached the air supply to Duo with difficulty. He placed the mask over Duo's mouth and heard the gentle suction sound as he breathed. Even like this, he was beautiful. Praying that what he had seen was the light getting stronger, he took a deep breath and dipped into the water, pulling Duo with him.

At first, his lungs screamed, but he calmed them as he swam, one arm pulling at the water, one arm around Duo's waist. To his delight, he saw that Wing was getting closer and closer. Duo was dragging him down in the water but he knew he could do this, this was what he had been trained for. He swam on and on, getting closer and closer. He heard the clang of metal on metal and knew that the second part of the plan was back in action. He reached the hatch, and pushed Duo up, gulping the breath he so desperately needed in a loud gasp.

He shoved the goggles off and pulled himself up into the cabin, closing the hatch. Wing immediately started turning the right way, and the depressurising unit, and Heero's ears had already popped by the time Wing had turned upright. Suddenly, he heard a cough, and his eyes brightened. The pure oxygen in the tank had woken Duo. He undid the air supply, and pulled him up into his lap as he knelt by him, his arms holding him up. Duo coughed and spluttered before his beautiful violet eyes fluttered open and rested on Heero's which smiled down at him.

"Welcome back." He said, warmly, his voice thick with relief.

"Heero?" Duo croaked, "I…I'm not…dead?"

"No, Duo. You're in Wing, on your way back to the surface."

"Deathscythe..?"

"Being taken up by the other three."

"Show me." Duo asked. Heero's eyes smiled down at him, and then gently, he picked him up and went to the window.

Duo stared out of the window as Heero stood by the window, holding Duo up with one arm. They watched in awe as Shenlong went one side, Sandrock went the other and Heavyarms went to Deathscythe's feet. They heard orders being told through the headphones, but weren't really listening. It was a truly amazing sight to see three massive humanoids carrying the fourth very slowly up. Wing went up, too, a little faster, and their ears had popped a few more times before they broke the surface. The light beeped to tell them they were back at normal pressure and Duo felt the coldness of fresh air as Wing was finally allowed to get more. They watched as the Gundams bobbed above the surface before very slowly coming out of the water, perfectly done. Duo imagined how hard it must be.

He suddenly shivered, and felt Heero lean away from him. He let go of him, and shoved his jacket around his shoulders before wrapping his arms around him. Duo snuggled up to him, his head resting on Heero's chest as Heero gripped him tightly. Duo smelt his musty smell, felt his arms around him, and remembered his promise to himself. His fantasy that he had relived again and again in Deathscythe's cabin. It had happened. Heero had come to save him, Heero had come for him, and now Heero was holding him. He snuggled in even deeper.

"I'm not going to let go, Duo." Heero said. As if he had anything to prove!

"Thank you." Duo said, simply, and felt Heero's arms tighten again. He closed his eyes, simply revelling in being out of Deathscythe, out of the sea, and in Heero's arms. Wing slowly lifted off and lent a hand to the others and they made their slow way back to the hanger, the two boys staying where they were like they had been carved there.


	9. Chapter 9

****

Chapter 9

Finally, they got back to the separate valley that the Gundams came out of, and the four of them, carrying the fifth, touched down and got into the circle.

Duo? Came the voice of Trowa. Duo lifted his head from Heero's chest and looked up at him, confused.

"Talk like you're talking to a Gundam." Heero told him.

Umm…hi? Duo said, and Heero smiled a little, tightening his grip on the trembling boy in his arms.

Oh! Thank god you're all right! Quatre cried.

Never ever do that to us again, you hear? Wufei said, laughing.

Welcome back, Pilot 02 Nataku said.

Second that. Sandrock added.

Gave us all a scare. Heavyarms stated.

Especially Heero. Wing added, right at the end. Duo looked back up at Heero, whose eyes had gone serious again. He was about to snuggle up again, when there was a voice from the communication phone.

"Finally! What the hell did you do?" Zechs asked. There were a few voices, and then they heard Treize. His voice was low, menacing and struck a jolt of fear into their hearts, all save Duo.

"Yuy, get down here now and explain yourself." He murmured. Duo felt Heero tense up. 

"Heero?" he asked, weakly, "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Heero answered, and turned away.

Heero. Trowa said, rebuking him a little.

Let's get down there. Heero ordered, and Wing started moving as the doors opened.

"Heero?" Duo asked again, but Heero had pulled away, sitting him in the chair and putting his tank top on. "Heero, what's going on?" he was ignored again, and then they all docked after setting Deathscythe down in his own dock. "Hee…" he was cut off as Heero swept him off his feet and climbed out of the hatch with him in his arms. Duo squirmed, but Heero held him firm, sliding down the ladders with no hands, making Duo gasp a little. He struggled, but Heero's ice grip held him firm, and he began to be a little scared. "Heero, please!" he cried, and Heero stopped. "Let me go!"

Heero looked at him, and then set him down gently on the floor. 

"I have to go." He said. Duo gripped him, his stomach turning cold.

"No," he choked, "You can't."

"He has to, Duo." Trowa said softly, coming up behind them. "He's got a price to pay."

"What do you mean?" Duo asked, after Heero gave him a strange look, which he couldn't make out before going up to the control room. All Duo knew was that that look had just struck fear in his stomach as well as dislodging something in his chest.

"He broke Treize's first set of rules to save your life." Trowa explained, holding the boy up. "Treize told him he would be court marshalled if he broke the rules gain, but he came out to rescue you anyway."

"Knowing he'd be executed when he came back." Duo breathed, the full extremity of what Trowa had just told him hitting him hard. "No." he said, shaking his head suddenly, "No, I won't let them…" he tried to push away from Trowa's grasp, but fell to the floor with a cry of pain. Trowa was immediately by his side.

"You cannot fight it, Duo." He said.

"They can't…they can't…he saved my life…I…Heero…they can't…." Duo said, his breathing getting faster and the sticky lump in his throat coming back up again. His saviour, the boy he needed more than anything else right now was going to die because he came to save him.

"Duo." Trowa breathed before pulling him into a protective embrace. Duo tried weakly to resist, but to no avail, he was weak, and Trowa was strong at the best of times. He dug deep, wanting Trowa to be Heero, but he wasn't.

Standing behind him, tears in his eyes, his hands clenched tightly on his heart, Quatre looked up as he and Wufei watched Treize rip into Heero. He had really blown his fuse; they didn't even want to know what he was saying to him. Heero was just standing, looking down, but Quatre nearly choked when he flinched. Heero didn't flinch. Wufei, his eyes wide in understanding, knowing that Trowa was occupied, slipped an arm around Quatre's shoulders. To his surprise, the boy almost fell into his arms and clung to him, shielding his eyes from it. Wufei held on tightly, nodding as Trowa looked at him gratefully. They then shared another, extremely worried look at the boy in Trowa's arms. If Heero died, they weren't sure he could take it.

Wufei pinched Quatre sharply, and the blonde haired boy looked up. Treize, Zechs and Heero were all in the lift. Wufei nudged Trowa with his foot, and the brown haired boy subtly covered Duo's eyes and ears as the procession passed them, their grim faces saying nothing but the obvious to the three watching. Quatre collapsed back into Wufei, crying again and both Trowa and Wufei tightened their grips on the boys in their arms. Somehow, Heero had wormed his way into all their hearts, oblivious to the fact that he had only been here a few days.

However hard Trowa tried to stop him, Duo finally looked up at the control room. He turned back to Trowa, the fear in his eyes stirring the boy.

"Where..?" Duo asked, but the faces of the other three answered his question. His face, to Trowa's growing fear, went blank.

"Duo." Trowa said, shaking him a little, but Duo's face was still blank. Sighing deeply, Trowa picked him up in his arms and motioned to the others to follow him. He fought back the wail of frustration and sadness that grew in him, and concentrated on the thought of healing Duo, as much as could be, that is, he thought grimly to himself.

**************

Trowa took the drink from Wufei and put it on the table. He couldn't drink it right now his throat was too tight. Quatre was tucked right into him, clinging on to him as if he was some kind of life raft. Wufei, at a raised eyebrow from Trowa, reluctantly came and sat the other side, letting Trowa put an arm around him. They needed each other right now.

"Heero!" 

They all flinched as there came another yell from the sleeping boy in the other room. It broke their hearts to see Duo like this. He had been sleeping fitfully for two hours, calling Heero's name over and over. He had been wrapped up but had refused food for the first time they could remember. 

"Trowa?" Quatre said from Trowa's chest, suddenly.

"Yes, Quatre-chan?" Trowa asked.

"You know when Duo was away and we thought he was going to die, and you said that it was as bad as it could get?"

"Yes?"

"You were wrong."

This simple thought hit them all again. He was right, though. He was very right.

They jumped massively as there was a frantic knocking on the door.

"Open up, for Christ's sake! Now!" came the frenzied voice of Zechs. Trowa sprung up, dislodging Quatre so fast he fell on the floor and sprang to the door.

"Jesus!" he breathed as he opened it. "Quatre, get the med. kit! Now! Bring him in here." He said, and opened the door. Wufei stared as he saw what Zechs was carrying. Heero. His face was picture of suppressed pain, and his bare chest was covered in whip wounds. That couldn't be what Zechs was so worried about, though. It was only when he went to lye him on the sofa, covered by a sheet that Wufei saw what it was. A gash on the boy's back, from his shoulder blade to his opposite hip. It was deep, wide, and was bleeding badly. Zechs was covered, and Heero was white from the blood loss. His eyes narrowed and his body tensed.

As quick as anything, Quatre was back.

"Turn him over!" he cried. Wufei simply stood, fuming. Trowa went over and pushed Zechs out of the way. Together the boys worked on Heero, who didn't even flinch as they stitched him up expertly. His face was still full of pain, and Wufei didn't even want to think about how much agony he must be in, but he didn't cry out once. Anyway, Wufei was too angry to be thinking about that right now. He didn't need to ask to know who'd done this, and he didn't need to ask what he did it with. What he did need to ask was how he dared to violate the ancient laws. From the whip wounds, he had gathered that Heero had been too much to lose for Treize, but he had been flogged. Which meant that the most obvious cause of the wound was one that Wufei flinched from even thinking about.

Finally, Trowa and Quatre had managed to stitch and bandage up the big wound and spread healing oils on all the whip wounds. They took the now sodden sheets and dumped them in the wash, and Heero sat on the sofa, still grimacing a bit. They came back and sat down, as Zechs did, but Wufei was too furious to sit.

"Treize did that, didn't he?" he finally managed.

"I've never seen him lose it like that." Zechs breathed, having taken his shirt off due to blood. "Yuy here was being the stoic, placid thing that he is, and it just…Treize just suddenly did this."

"Whilst he was tied up?" Quatre asked, flabbergasted. 

"He was taunting him with it, none of us thought he would actually use it." Zechs said, "And then, suddenly, he did. Well, Noin went absolutely crazy. She and Une were having a total bitch fight over him when I left with him. Noin had just gone for Treize like nothing I've ever seen, and Une got in the way. Treize was standing there, I had to stop him finishing the boy off before I could get him out."

"Bastard." Wufei breathed, seething. Zechs put a restraining hand on his arm.

"Hey, Chang, leave it 'till the big battle, huh? Don't go after him now. We can't risk losing another one, not now!" he added, sternly as Wufei opened his mouth again.

"Please, Wufei." Quatre pleaded, and Wufei remembered how he had clung to him when the second Gundam pilot had "died".

"Ok." He sighed, and slumped back on the sofa. Heero was still staring at the floor, his face blank now, and there was a hushed silence.

"Heero!"

There was another cry from Duo, and Heero's head shot up, his stomach disappearing.

"He is dreaming." Trowa said, and Heero looked over at him. 

"He's been doing that every five minutes for the past two hours." Quatre added.

"He needs sleep." Wufei told him.

"I think he's got the general picture." Zechs reminded them, as Heero got up. He walked over to the bedroom door and into the red room. He was catapulted back to, what, was it only the night before? It felt like forever. It was twilight, and the moon was just poking its head over the horizon. Duo was on the bed. He was writhing gently, the bedclothes all off or nearly, he had been doing this for so long. His hair was loose and all over the bed and his beautiful face was scrunched up in bad dreams. He was in grey sweat pants, that was all, his hair falling in thick strands over his chest. His breathing was ragged, and slightly hoarse.

Almost paralysed, Heero walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of it. He slowly put his hand out, and put it on Duo's head, stroking it gently, the feeling of Duo's smooth hair on Heero's fingers wonderful. As his hand reached Duo's face, Duo's movements stopped, and he looked confused.

"Duo." Heero whispered, starting his hand back on Duo's head again. 

"Heero?" Duo asked thickly, and then his eyes opened. He looked at Heero whose eyes were warm down on him. "Wait…you're…." He noticed the bandage that was tied diagonally across Heero's body, and the tips of whip wounds. "They flogged you." He breathed. 

"Couldn't lose me." Heero said, simply.

"But, what..?" Duo asked, looking at the bandage.

"Treize lost it." Heero said again.

"But, you're ok?"

"What does it look like?"

"You're not going away?"

"No." Heero said, his voice suddenly almost a desperate whisper. "No." His hand was still on Duo's head, and fell back when Duo sat up. Heero watched him as Duo's eyes raked over his wounded body, and saw the flood of guilt go into his fabulous violet eyes. He raised Duo's face with his finger so he met those eyes. "Don't." he said, simply. Duo looked up at him, and Heero saw the glints of tears in the boy's face. He pulled him into his chest firmly, but gently, and Duo wrapped his arms gently around him, his head resting on Heero's shoulder, as Heero wrapped his own arms around Duo's body. They held there, clinging to each other. Heero closed his eyes, the memory of muttering Duo's name under his breath every time the whip hit him fading into the background as he held him in his arms, Duo's memory of clinging to Heero's face as the seconds of his life ticked away thankfully leaving him to only come back in dreams. One question now flooded through both boys' minds. What the hell was going on?

Well, that was my first big story people. For those who are jumping up and down in frustration, if there are any of you, there is a sequel which I will be posting as soon as I can finish the last touches to it. Thanks and congrats for getting this far!!!! J 


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